With the UK general election due to be held by May, the Liberal Democrats have turned their attention to green jobs. Citing the fact that 90% of a £1.75bn contract for a wind farm off the coast of Kent is going to foreign contractors, their party leader Nick Clegg, said 57 000 new jobs could be created by converting disused shipyards in areas of high unemployment into centres for producing wind turbines. Clegg suggested that Liverpool, Newcastle, Hull, Middlesbrough, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen and Glasgow could take advantage of a proposed £400m pot to convert the shipyrads, with an additional £100m made available for training and testing facilities.
The leader also promised that in the event of his party taking power, they would reallocate £3.6bn within a year of their election to creating jobs and improving infrastructure.
Source: bbc.co.uk/11.02.10