Ed Miliband says clean energy transition can 'turn around fortunes' for towns like Lowestoft
The Energy Secretary has been on a tour of the outer harbour in the town.
Ed Miliband said the clean energy transition can "turn around the fortunes" of towns like Lowestoft in Suffolk as he defended infrastructure plans that could affect the wider region.
After facing years of decline in its fishing and tourism industries, the coastal town is growing into an energy hub that supports offshore wind farms in development in the southern North Sea.
During a visit to a new £35 million redevelopment project in the outer harbour, the Energy Secretary described Lowestoft's ongoing transformation as "incredibly exciting".
The Lowestoft Eastern Energy Facility (Leef) is expected to create about 500 jobs and bring potential economic benefits of £1.5 billion over 60 years.
Mr Miliband toured a newly built operation service ship, which will transport workers back and forth to Dogger Bank - an unprecedentedly large network of offshore wind farms currently under construction in the North Sea.
"This shows how our clean energy mission can turn around the fortunes of a town like Lowestoft - traditionally important in employment in oil and gas," he said.
"Here we see the really really important work on the massive offshore wind turbines that can create hundreds of jobs for people, create economic growth, tackle our environmental issues - all of those things together."
"Its incredibly exciting," he added. "This isn't some theoretical jobs of the future. These are real jobs that are going to be created for people in this community."
Quizzed about concerns that the Government is not listening to local communities about the impact they could face from the transition, including hosting more substations and pylons as well as the Sizewell C nuclear project, he said: "We always look at what local people have to say.
"But this is my case, which is: we could decide that we are just going to carry on as we are, not build, and leave ourselves exposed as a country, not tackle the climate crisis, not create these good jobs which will rely on getting that infrastructure built or we can make a different choice.
"I think we were elected to make a different choice for the country, which is: yes, listen to local people, yes to make sure local communities get direct benefits for hosting the energy infrastructure, but also to build that infrastructure that is in the interest of the country."
On Government plans to reform judicial reviews which are seen to be holding up major infrastructure projects, Mr Miliband argued that local people in Suffolk still will have "recourse to the courts" to challenge them but the changes aim to prevent unnecessary delays.
"Let's make sure that that's there for people, but then let's decide as a country," he said.
"One of the problems as a country is that we haven't been making these decisions we've left ourselves exposed, we're not creating the jobs and there's a huge opportunity here, and that's what my visit to Lowestoft illustrates."
Asked about controversial plans for a long network of pylons through Norfolk, Sussex and Essex, he said: "I've got to be careful about what I say because it's a planning decision which will have to be made by my department."
He added: "I understand the concerns of local people when transmission infrastructure is built but we do need to build them because, unless we build (it), we are not going to tackle that energy insecurity as a country."
Mr Miliband also argued that putting the cables underground is "much more destructive to the countryside" as the land is dug up to bury them.
More widely, the Energy Secretary insisted the Prime Minister and Chancellor support both growth and net-zero aims.
Mr Miliband's comments come amid concerns that the Government's support for judicial review reforms, cutting regulatory red tape, and aviation expansion, all in the pursuit of growth, could pave the way for infrastructure developments that harm the environment and climate.
"The whole of the Government is committed to meeting both our growth aims - our number one priority - and our clean energy, net-zero aims," he said.
"The Prime Minister was absolutely right to say that yesterday and I think that if you talk to the Chancellor and look at what she's actually said, she is committed to both of these things as well. That is where the Government is."