LABOUR’S General Election pledge to create 1000 new energy jobs in Scotland could take as long as “20 years”, according to the boss of GB Energy.
It comes after much discussion over the UK Government’s promises on GB Energy after reports showed a massive fall in the projected number of jobs it will create.
In November last year, Juergen Maier told MPs on the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee that he expected between 200 and 300 jobs to be created in Aberdeen.
Now, in his first TV interview, the GB Energy chair repeated that figure.
Maier told Sky News: "Great British Energy itself is going to create, over the next five years, 200 or 300 jobs in Aberdeen. That will be the size of our team.”
He added, however, that the ambition in the future still remains 1000 jobs.
“I have said in the very long term when we become a major energy champion it may be many more than that," Maier said.
Pressed on what “long term” is, he replied: "Look, we grow these companies, energy companies grow over 10 or 20 years, and we are going to be around in 20 years."
Maier then responded “absolutely” when asked if it would take two decades to fulfil the 1000 jobs pledge.
Unite's Scottish secretary Derek Thomson sounded the alarm over the comments.
He said: "If you look at how many jobs are going to go in the northeast, if GB Energy does not pick up the pace and start to move workers in there and start to create proper green jobs, then I'm afraid we could be looking at a desolation of the northeast."
Scrutiny of GB Energy in the media previously revealed that Maier will not be based in Scotland. Despite numerous pledges to base the firm north of the Border, he will instead control the Labour project from a base in Manchester.
The National has also revealed that GB Energy will not have its own headquarters in Aberdeen.
Instead, it will be based in the same building as an existing office for staff in the UK Government’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). Oil giants including Shell and Dana Petroleum have offices in the same building.
Maier also told MPs in November that the first phase of investment from GB Energy would not happen until "well into" 2025, and that it would be "very modest".
The GB Energy chair said the first phase of investment would be worth just £125 million. Labour have earmarked £8.3 billion to fund GB Energy over the current Westminster parliament, which experts have previously told The National will not be enough.
