23rd June 2020
GOVERNMENT ADMITS UP TO 57,000 UK JOBS WOULD BE CREATED BY TIDAL POWER IN UK
Business Minister Kwasi Kwarteng today admitted that up to 57,000 UK jobs could be created by tidal power in the UK.
In a written answer today to a question put by Conservative MP Paul Maynard, the minister said that up to 19,000 jobs would be created directly from the construction and operation of a fleet of tidal lagoons in the UK. “The estimated number of direct jobs underlying this part of the assessment peaked at around 18,000 FTE in any one year across the lagoon fleet. The number of direct jobs maintained across the lagoon fleet once construction had completed was estimated at around 1,000 FTE per year.”
Kwarteng then admitted that up to double this number of jobs could also be created from contractual and other work associated with the construction and operation of the lagoons. “Indirect jobs were also considered, with a range tested around 2 indirect jobs per direct job.”
The answer flatly contradicts the Government’s 2018 value for money assessment on Swansea Tidal Lagoon, in which it said that “only 28 long term jobs would be associated with the operation and maintenance of Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon” and made no estimate of manufacturing jobs.
The Government have been citing the 2018 value for money assessment as a reason not to proceed with the construction of Swansea Bay Tidal lagoon. The project is ready to go, but the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), has so far refused to sign off a decommissioning plan (for the year 2145) that its own officials approved in March. The decommissioning plan is the last remaining permit the project requires to start work on site and preserve planning permission.
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Question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assumptions were made in the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon project value for money assessment on the number of green jobs that would be created by the fleet of tidal lagoon projects, starting at Swansea Bay. (59413)
Tabled on: 15 June 2020
Answer:
Kwasi Kwarteng:
The Department’s value for money assessment for the proposed programme of tidal lagoons[1] considered the wider benefits, including the value of jobs supported.
The estimated number of direct jobs underlying this part of the assessment peaked at around 18,000 FTE in any one year across the lagoon fleet. The number of direct jobs maintained across the lagoon fleet once construction had completed was estimated at around 1,000 FTE per year. Indirect jobs were also considered, with a range tested around 2 indirect jobs per direct job.
[1] Available at www.gov.uk/government/publications/swansea-bay-tidal-lagoon-value-for-money-assessment
For further information please call:
Tony Langham – 07979 692287
Tom Baldock – 07860 101715
Ed Hooper – 07783 387713
See link below to yesterday’s announcement
APPEAL TO BORIS TO GREEN LIGHT TIDAL LAGOON PROJECT
http://www.tidallagoonpower.com/news/2020/06/22/press-release-22nd-june-2020/