New Research Reveals How UK Government Can Raise £6.7 Billion Annually to Support North Sea Workers
For immediate release
A new factsheet sets out a clear and credible path for the UK government to mobilise £6.7 billion per year in public funds to support oil and gas workers through the transition to clean energy.
London, UK – A new factsheet released today, UP FOR GRABS: How to raise over £6 billion to support a just transition for North Sea workers, sets out a clear and credible path for the UK government to mobilise £6.7 billion per year in public funds to support oil and gas workers through the transition to clean energy.
The release comes as North Sea workers face increasingly precarious employment and redundancy in a declining oil and gas sector, without adequate government support for a fair and orderly shift to renewable energy.
Despite Labour’s pre-election pledge to make Britain a “clean energy superpower” and to “rebuild the strength of our industrial heartlands and coastal communities,” no concrete transition plan has yet been delivered. Their recent consultation on the North Sea’s energy future highlighted the government’s continued reliance on private finance, something that has been a proven failure, for an energy transition. This new analysis shows that delivering on that promise is both possible and urgently needed.
The £6.7 billion figure outlined in the factsheet is based on practical and readily available measures and is only a starting point – it is far from exhaustive. For comparison, the UK government mobilised between £310–410 billion during the Covid-19 crisis, proving that large-scale public investment is feasible when political will exists.
The factsheet urges the government to use the upcoming Comprehensive Spending Review to commit to an emergency transition package worth £1.9 billion annually until 2030, supported by trade unions, including RMT and Unite, alongside 65 national and grassroots climate groups. The package includes:
- £1.1 billion/year for permanent, local jobs in publicly and community-owned wind manufacturing;
- £440 million/year in port infrastructure investment to support the buildout of offshore wind, so the government can take equity stakes in port upgrades as critical national infrastructure;
- £355 million/year for a dedicated training fund for offshore oil and gas workers.
Rosemary Harris, North Sea Senior Campaigner at Oil Change International, said:
“Transitioning to a renewable energy economy is one of the greatest opportunities the UK has to create secure, well-paid jobs for energy workers and build a fairer future. But right now, the government is failing to meet the challenges facing workers and communities. As jobs disappear and the cost of living soars, communities are being left behind. This plays right into the hands of those who wish to weaponise the government’s inaction for their own profits, under the guise of caring about workers.
“We need to see the government take the needs of workers seriously, through co-ordinated, purposeful and, crucially, funded interventions to support them. It should be clear to everyone at this point that we cannot rely on the market and industry bosses to deliver these. Phasing out fossil fuels is not a strategy doomed to fail, it is a completely winnable plan for a livable future and we have the money to pay for it without hurting everyday people’s wallets. By ending taxpayer subsidies to oil and gas companies making massive profits and closing loopholes that benefit only the richest in society, they could easily open up opportunities for workers and communities to benefit from this much needed shift to renewable energy.”
Ruby Earle, Transition Campaigns Lead at Platform, said:
“The political choice is clear: invest now, so we can power our communities from factories and ports across the UK — or let multinationals ship the profits and the jobs overseas. An energy transition – and the public investment to deliver it – is well within reach. We just need the political will to raise it.
“A funding package on this scale could create thousands of secure, unionised jobs in wind manufacturing and desperately needed port upgrades – the bedrock of an energy industry built to last. The time for business-as-usual is long past: Rachel Reeves must invest now, to give energy workers and communities across the UK a real stake in our future.”
To access more work like this from OCI, check out our We Can Pay For It factsheet from 2024 that shows there is no shortage of public money available for rich countries to pay their fair share on fair terms for climate action at home and abroad.