UK

GB Energy investments could one day fund local services – Anas Sarwar

Mr Sarwar said the Harland and Wolff site in Methil, Fife, has ‘huge potential’.

Anas Sarwar sought to highlight Labour’s green prosperity plan
Anas Sarwar sought to highlight Labour’s green prosperity plan (Jane Barlow/PA)
By Neil Pooran, PA Scotland Political Correspondent

GB Energy’s investments in infrastructure for the renewables industry could one day provide funding for local services, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has said.

As the final week of campaigning before the General Election began, he sought to highlight Labour’s green prosperity plan, which the party says will create 650,000 jobs across the UK by 2030.

He said the Harland and Wolff site in Methil, Fife, had “huge potential”, as he visited alongside shadow Scottish secretary Ian Murray on Monday.

He saw staff there working on creating barges for refuse materials.

The company hopes to develop and expand its site to allow for more work on structures for the offshore renewables industry, including jackets – the large underwater structures which wind turbines stand on.

Mr Sarwar said the green prosperity plan would require government investment as well as partnership with private industry.

He told the PA news agency: “It’s also, crucially, going to require collaboration and partnership with fantastic companies like Harland and Wolff, if we are to realise that full potential.”

Mr Sarwar continued: “What we want to do is invest in our port infrastructure, to invest in our supply chain infrastructure.

“There is huge potential in this site, for example, to ramp up that supply chain and that infrastructure, just like there is in other parts of the country as well.”

Green energy projects would deliver lower bills and provide security of supply for the UK, he said, pledging to make Scotland a “global leader”.

Part of Labour’s plans includes setting up a publicly owned energy company called GB Energy, which would be headquartered in Scotland.

The SNP have said there is a lack of clarity on what GB Energy would do.

Mr Sarwar said a Labour government would ensure its green investments provided a return for the taxpayer, adding: “One day why not look to what other models are in other parts of the world?

“Where they’re actually using those investments to actually fund their local services, these are all models we’re looking at with GB Energy.”