Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of high quality green jobs in Tyne and Wear.

We are determined to seize the once-in-a-generation economic opportunities of the net zero transition by creating new business opportunities and, by one estimate, supporting up to 2 million green jobs by 2030 across all regions of the UK. The UK has a strong base to build upon, in 2019 there were already over 410,000 jobs in low carbon businesses and their supply chains across the country. Through my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan, we will support a further 90,000 green collar jobs across the UK by 2024, and up to 250,000 by 2030.

The Getting Building Fund is investing £64.4 million in 20 projects across the North East, creating an estimated 2475 jobs. This includes £1.82 million for Tyne Dock Enterprise Park in South Shields, which will accelerate site preparation and infrastructure for the offshore wind sector. This site has been selected by Equinor/SSE to establish a major Offshore wind land-based hub to service the offshore wind farms off the North East coast and will create over 200 jobs. The Getting Building Fund is also investing £1.3 million to develop a strategic riverside offshore wind enterprise zone in Wallsend, which could create a further 500 jobs and £1.86 million in the InTEGReL Customer Energy Village research facility in Gateshead, which will demonstrate technologies enabling existing housing stock decarbonisation to net zero.

Through the Growth Deal agreed with North East LEP, we provided £379.6 million to support nearly 50 projects and programmes, which are estimated to create up to 8200 jobs and attract £300m of public and private investment. In Tyne and Wear, this included £8 million for the Swans Energy Park in Wallsend, a key strategic site for the offshore and subsea sector, which will host several hundred jobs when fully developed.

In order to ensure we have the skilled workforce to deliver net zero and our Ten Point Plan, we have launched the Green Jobs Taskforce. The taskforce will conclude its work in summer 2021, with the actions feeding into our Net Zero Strategy to be published later in the year.