If you live opposite the vacant site in Northumberland that was supposed to become the Britishvolt ‘gigafactory’ pumping out batteries for the electric car industry, or near the Vestas wind turbine plant on the Isle of Wight where half the 600 workers have been told they face redundancy, you might just struggle to believe that Britain is in the midst of a net zero jobs boom.
Yet that is the striking claim that is being made by CBI Economics and the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU).
The net zero sector, it says, grew by 10.1 per cent last year, added £83.1 billion in gross value added (GVA) and accounted for 951,000 full-time jobs – an additional 125,700 created in the past three years.
This is, needless to say, what Ed Miliband wants us to believe. He has responded to the report by saying: ‘These numbers speak for themselves. Net zero is essential to growth, and money in working people’s pockets.
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