SCOTTISH secretary Alister Jack has been urged to intervene over fears that work on a new Angus windfarm will be exported abroad.
In a joint letter, trade unions GMB and Unite have written to the minister urging him to take action in bringing more work in the renewables sector to Scotland.
In the letter, GMB Scotland chief Gary Smith and Unite Scotland head Pat Rafferty have raised concerns about SSE Renewables taking work for the Seagreen Offshore Windfarm, based in Angus, abroad.
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Their letter states: "It is completely unacceptable for Scottish bill-payers to subsidise the big players in this industry, like SSE, only for those same companies to continually make clear what little regard they have for creating work in Scotland whilst exploiting Scotland’s natural resources for their own gain.
"We need, as you know, an urgent reform of the UK Government’s Contracts for Difference arrangements to provide the right support for the UK supply chain, as many other countries do, and as we have done successfully in other parts of the energy industry here too.
" I was pleased to hear you say to the House of Commons in February, that you did not believe that shipping the turbine jackets for the Neart na Gaoithe project from Indonesia was sensible but when it comes to Seagreen it appears that the idea of manufacturing in Guangdong in China is to be dropped in favour of work being done in Europe, but not the UK."
Mr Smith said the Seagreen project, which will be based 27km from the Angus coastline, could have provided a "second chance" for Scotland but concerns are growing over speculation that manufacturing contracts will go to Europe, and not Scottish firms.
He said: "Any credible chance of a 'green recovery' depends on urgent reform of the controversial Contracts for Difference scheme.
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“Billions of pounds of bill payers money is being trousered by sovereign wealth funds, private equity vultures, Far East financiers and state-backed international competitors, taking the bulk of jobs abroad while Scotland’s struggling supply chain gets scraps from our own projects.
“The withdrawal of the Seagreen manufacturing contracts from China is a second chance for Scotland but instead of doing the right thing and giving the domestic economy some much needed hope, speculation is rising that SSE will award this work to yards across Northern Europe.
“An intervention is needed to end this scandal but Alister Jack has been missing in action. Rather than acting like an absentee landlord he needs to start making the case CfD reform to help bring desperately needed jobs and investment into our renewables manufacturing supply chains.”
The Scotland Office was contacted for comment but did not respond.
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