MP vows North East transition to clean energy will be opposite of coalmining debacle

STOCKTON MP Chris McDonald says the North East’s transition to clean energy will be the opposite of the country’s last energy transition, when pits closed, miners were thrown on the scrap heap and communities were scarred for generations.

Speaking at Redhills in Durham this week on the 40th anniversary of the Miners’ Strike, which ripped the heart out of many communities and sent the region’s once vast coalfield community into terminal decline, he said: “A previous generation was let down by the last transition, when the Government failed to support communities in deindustrialisation.

“The changes happened without their consent – it didn’t happen with them, it happened to them – and I see the scars of that today. 

“That’s why, at this moment in time, the green industrial revolution is so important in terms of the positive impacts it can make to our local communities, and it is so important we explain that to people.

“We expect 20,000 green jobs to come to the North East by 2030 as we train up a whole new generation of workers in good, well-paid jobs.

“It’s going to have a great impact and instead of being in very clustered places – which tends to be the case with the coal, oil and gas industries – these new clean energy jobs will be spread much more evenly around the North East and across the country.

“We want to avoid the mistakes of the past, where we saw deindustrialisation happening without a clear plan of what comes next.

“I’m interested in reindustrialisation of the North East, not deindustrialisation – I don’t want a single factory to be closing because of the clean energy transition.”

McDonald, who has strong family connections to the coal industry, was delivering a keynote speech at Redhills, home of the Durham Miners Association, at a clean energy conference being held by the Durham Energy Institute.

Redhills itself is a metaphor for the green transition, having fallen into disuse before being restored and reopened, powered almost entirely by renewable energy.

McDonald, who has been promoted to the Government’s Under Secretary of State, (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero), recently oversaw the release of the first-ever national plan to recruit workers needed for clean energy, with over 400,000 extra jobs by 2030.

The plan highlighted 31 priority occupations, such as plumbers, electricians and welders who will be particularly in demand and announced five new clean energy Technical Excellence Colleges to train the next generation of workers.

McDonald said: “The green energy sector is growing three times faster than the rest of the economy, so if you’re looking for growth, that’s where growth is.

“Wind and solar are the cheapest forms of energy that we have.

“We know it is a big change and a big challenge in transitioning but it’s also a real opportunity.

“Britain is a nation with a coastline that makes it perfect for renewable energy and we plan to double investment in green energy and become a world leader so that investors have long-term confidence in the UK.

“We have the biggest market in the world for the offshore industry but we want it not just to supply British businesses and homes, but to provide jobs here. 

“We want the supply chain to be captured as much as possible so that the jobs are here – good, long-term, well-paid jobs and I want to see the North East really benefit from that.”

McDonald’s keynote speech was made at a conference bringing groups from across society together at the former ‘Pitman’s Parliament’ to discuss the latest developments in renewable energy, including mine water heating, hydrogen technology, offshore wind, clean shipping and sustainable energy solutions for the NHS.

The event also focused on community involvement, with workshops led by pupils from Prince Bishops Primary School in Bishop Auckland, creative writing sessions on the climate crisis, and community energy consultations.

McDonald said meetings like the one at Redhills had a very important role to play in making sure that the public could see the clear benefits of clean energy and get on board with the drive to decarbonise.

He said: “I’m disappointed that there’s a political fracture just now because we used to have a consensus around the energy transition in the UK.

“Some political parties are keen to move away from that climate consensus and, in my view, that’s not because they care about communities in the North East.

“It’s because fundamentally they are responding to big corporations who are concerned that maybe their global trading ambitions won’t be realised in the same way.

“All I’m concerned about is delivering good jobs in the North East and getting people’s energy bills down, and the green energy transition is how we’re going to do that.

“Where we have high energy costs, it is because we’ve been reliant on international gas markets; those prices have been driven up by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

“But by having our own domestic energy again, just as we had before we dug it out of the ground, now we will harness it from the sun and the wind and have our own nuclear power 

“It means that as well as owning our own domestic energy and energy security, we’ll deliver lower-cost energy for people and for businesses and create good jobs locally.

“It’s such an opportunity for the North East and for the country and I support anyone who is trying to help people in the region see that and realise the opportunities the North East has  to become a major player in the energy sector again for the first time in generations.”