Green economic vision?

Yesterday Nick Clegg launched the Liberal Democrat vision for a green economy. A year of intensive investment to the tune of £3.1bn would create 100,000 new green jobs, 30,000 to be taken up within the first year. Labour and the Conservatives are comparatively ambiguous: Labour has promised to create 400,000 new green jobs by 2015, while the Tories have made only a vague commitment to ‘generate thousands of green jobs’.

On wind power Clegg proposes renovating seven ports in the North of England and Scotland for turbine production – essential if the UK is to secure ‘in house’ manufacturing jobs from its potentially massive wind industry and if we are to attract overseas manufacturers (as ippr argued last year). Labour commits only to making a decision on the feasibility of such a project ‘early in the next Parliament’.

Another key proposal is £140m of investment into a bus scrappage programme, to replace old buses while creating new jobs. This distances the Lib Dems from Labour and the Conservatives who are more interested in protecting the UK’s car manufacturing industry, which Labour intends to make green by promoting ‘rapid take up of electric and low carbon cars’.

The Lib Dems’ eco-cashback scheme would provide a financial incentive to make energy efficiency improvements to your home in the form of a £400 reward. This goes further than the Government’s current boiler scrappage scheme as it includes areas such as double glazing and microgeneration too.

What about green jobs for the young? The Lib Dems plan for 18–25s to receive training, education or an internship after only 90 days on Jobseeker’s Allowance. This is dramatically less than the 1 year that young people currently have to wait under the Future Jobs Fund. But Labour has announced that 10,000 (out of 170,000) of the jobs/placements/training schemes to be created through the FJF will be of the green variety; the Lib Dems have so far made no such pledge.

Overall, the Liberal Democrats’ plans on green jobs are ambitious and challenging, but the electorate may not find them credible.

Kandida Purnell