Labour in call to invest £30bn in green recovery - with potential for 'tens of thousands' of jobs in Yorkshire

Labour is calling for billions of pounds of planned capital investment to be brought forward as part of a stimulus package to get the country back on its feet from the pandemic.

The low carbon infrastructure that is needed for the future – from offshore wind turbines to electric buses – should be built in Britain to boost manufacturing and create 400,000 jobs, Labour has said.

Last month Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced £160m funding to update infrastructure at ports on the Humber and in Teeside to handle the mega-turbines of the future, as part of a drive to “build back greener”.

But Shadow Business Secretary and Doncaster North MP Ed Milband accused the Government of “dither and inaction” and said the funding was “not adequate to the scale of the task” ahead.

The MP said Yorkshire had the potential to lead on green jobs by accelerating investment in hydrogen as a clean fuel and schemes to capture carbon emissions as well as offshore wind.

Expanding programmes to make homes more energy efficient, and bringing forward investment in flood defence schemes in at-risk areas would create jobs and help tackle the climate and environment crisis.

Mr Miliband said: “For a couple of ports the required investment is £900m and they are pledging £160m over 10 years. It is really not adequate to the scale of the task.

“They need to get on with it because otherwise this is what happened on onshore wind – we will end up behind the curve with jobs created elsewhere.

“Yorkshire can definitely lead on this because of offshore wind, because of carbon capture and the hydrogen economy – there is so much we can lead on.”

The party said a consultation with businesses, trade unions and other bodies highlights the need for an emergency training programme to help people gain skills they need for the future green economy.

Ministers should create a national investment bank focused on green investment and ensure that public spending always aids the drive to cut emissions to net zero by 2050, Labour said.

RenewableUK’s Deputy Chief Executive and former Grimsby MP Melanie Onn said: “Offshore wind has a major role to play in the green economic recovery which all the main political parties are calling for.

“Yorkshire and the Humber are in pole position to benefit from this as the region is already well established as a centre of offshore wind excellence, with major manufacturing taking place here, as well as the operation and maintenance of massive wind farms in the North Sea. This will expand rapidly in the years ahead with even bigger projects underway such as Dogger Bank.”

Ms Onn said the latest round of auctions for contracts to generate clean power, being held next year, would secure at least £20bn of new investment and create 12,000 jobs in the wind industry alone, mainly in construction.

The Government is expected to set out a 10-point plan shortly to help drive the shift to net zero with efforts to tackle pollution in areas such as transport, power and homes.