Electricity Infrastructure: Rural Communities Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Business and Trade
Angus MacDonald
Main Page: Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat - Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire)Department Debates - View all Angus MacDonald's debates with the Department for Business and Trade
Electricity Infrastructure: Rural Communities
Angus MacDonald Excerpts(2Â days ago)
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John Lamont
The hon. Member makes an excellent point about taking communities with us. We all accept, I believe, the need to invest in our electricity infrastructure, but it must be done in a coherent way that takes local communities with us.
Mr Angus MacDonald (Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire) (LD)
Would the hon. Member agree that transmission line operators should consider the impact on local communities by leaving legacy housing, employing graduate apprentices from the area and not swamping local villages with workers’ camps?
John Lamont
The hon. Member makes a key point, which I will come to later, that often these projects generate many jobs while the developments are being constructed, but the jobs disappear as soon as they are finished. That is unlike nuclear power, which the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie Stone) mentioned, with 300 jobs in Berwickshire alone directly connected to Torness power station. Those are permanent jobs, for people living and working in the local communities. We do not get the same employment opportunities with some of the current proposals for energy infrastructure.