The Scottish secretary has defended the UK Government’s support for the oil and gas sector as the chancellor comes under increasing pressure to lower taxes for the industry.
Douglas Alexander said the Government was providing investment in renewables to help the long-term future of the North East.
It comes as the Scottish Conservatives called on Rachel Reeves not to wait until 2030 to axe the windfall tax.
On a visit to Aberdeen on Thursday, Alexander would not be drawn on calls to axe the tax but insisted the UK Government is backing all parts of the energy sector.
During the visit, he announced more than £17m of investment in the Energy Transition Zone, an area of the city earmarked to grow renewables.
The Scottish secretary told STV News: “We’ve relied on North Sea energy for the last 60 years. Over just the last ten years, we’ve lost more than 70,000 jobs from the basin, so this isn’t a problem that emerged yesterday – it’s a problem that’s been there for some time.
“That’s why we need the transition, we need a transition that both supports existing oil and gas companies and their workers, but at the same time provides the new jobs for the industries of the future.”
The funding was welcomed by Maggie McGinlay from the Energy Transition Zone, who branded the award “hugely significant”.
She said: “[It will allow] us to continue to move and make sure we’re investor-ready for offshore wind activities.
“We have to be investing in the future, but we also have to ensure that we’re supporting the oil and gas economy as well, because it needs to be a managed transition as well, and what we want to see is it being very smooth.”
However, the Scottish Conservatives say the funding would not be enough to help those losing jobs in oil now.
Douglas Lumsden MSP said: “I welcome any pound invested into the north east of Scotland but this is not going to replace the jobs that we’re seeing lost right across the oil and gas sector and that is something that we need to stop, because we can actually invest into renewables but we need to maintain the oil and gas sector at the same time, so there’s actually jobs for people to transition across to.
A report last week from a group of MPs showed jobs in clean energy were not being created at the pace or scale needed to match the decline of North Sea oil and gas.
Turning that around is now the challenge for both Government and industry alike.
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