UK: REA Responds to Vince Cable’s Industrial Policy Speech

BIS Secretary Vince Cable has set out his vision for the future development of the British economy. Energy is identified in one of three target categories for support, with an industrial strategy for energy expected in ‘early 2013’. The category is identified as ‘enabling’ and the accompanying BIS analysis says strategic partnerships with the energy sector are ‘likely to be highly beneficial to the growth agenda’.

REA Head of External Affairs Leonie Greene said:

“It is helpful that Vince Cable understands a successful approach to infrastructure investment requires a long-term perspective. The Olympics is a brilliant example to draw lessons from. It was supported by a cross-party consensus, something the renewables sector and the public would greatly benefit from, because certainty reduces costs.”

The REA is urging the Coalition Government to join up the renewable energy agenda with the pressing national need for jobs and growth. The recent REA/Innovas report ‘Made in Britain’ presented the first comprehensive assessment of employment and turnover in the UK.

The renewable energy sector and its supply chains turned over £12.5 billion in 2010/11 with weighted average growth from 2009 to 2010 of 11%, far higher than GDP growth over this period. Public support for renewables during 2010 amounted to £1.4 billion in 2010, showing how successful the renewables sector is at leveraging private investment.

REA analysis suggests that meeting the binding 2020 renewable energy targets will require up to 400,000 highly diverse jobs by 2020. However, BIS’s own ‘Skills for a Green Economy’ report makes clear there is a risk of market failure in employment in the renewables sector.

The Secretary of State today highlighted the serious shortage of engineers, an issue which concerns the renewables sector. The REA has called for a dedicated skills strategy for renewables to address expected skills shortages, and for a Minister with responsibility for renewables at BIS.

Leonie Greene said:

“This is a step forward by BIS, but the Coalition Government could inspire the nation right now with a much bolder vision for jobs and growth right across the renewable energy sector. Given huge public support for renewables [5] and the tremendous opportunities this sector opens up for the UK economy, it’s frustrating that parts of Government have been allowed to muffle an exciting agenda that should be shouted from the rooftops.”

This summer over 200 companies and organisations wrote to the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, urging them to put renewable energy at the heart of a positive growth agenda and to stabilise the political landscape and policy framework for renewable energy.

REA Chief Executive Gaynor Hartnell said:

“Renewables can support a much bigger and broader vision for jobs and growth than we’ve seen so far from this Government, as Lord Deben, Chair of the Government’s advisory Committee on Climate Change, made plain this weekend. The Coalition must focus not only on the tremendous benefits renewables have to offer the UK, but also on the overall framework and approach, which has become overly complex and debilitating.”

[mappress]

Press release, September 13, 2012