Scotland 'to miss out on thousands of Green energy jobs' as BiFab enters administration
Claims that Scotland is on the brink of a renewables revolution have been 'exposed as a myth’ after a firm seen as central to building a wind farm manufacturing sector went into administration.
Fife-based BiFab, a steel fabrication firm, called in administrators despite being supported by £52 million in public money, with the Scottish Government a joint owner of the company.
It blamed in part a decision by SNP ministers to withdraw a financial guarantee for a £2 billion contract to build eight wind farm jackets - the huge structures that secure turbines in place - for the Neart Na Gaoithe wind farm project off the east coast for the collapse.
My speech in the Holyrood debate on BiFab, exposing the woeful approach of the SNP Government which has let down workers in Fife. pic.twitter.com/RHLLCevQcY
— Murdo Fraser (@murdo_fraser) December 3, 2020
Opposition MSPs said that the failure of the Scottish Government to support the firm would cost thousands of jobs in the renewables sector and said the country had been left an “industrial desert”.
The company’s board attacked both the UK and Scottish Governments, saying it had been left unable to compete with foreign competitors which received far greater public support.
Meanwhile, the Unite and GMB trade unions said BiFab’s administration “exposes the myth of Scotland's renewables revolution, as well as a decade of political hypocrisy and failure in Scotland and the rest of the UK."
Speaking at Holyrood, Nicola Sturgeon said she was “deeply disappointed” by the development but denied that she could have done more.
She said: "If there was more we could have done within the law to avert what has happened today, we would have done that."
BiFab, which has yards in Burntisland and Methil in Fife as well as one on Lewis, had to be rescued by the Scottish Government in 2017.
The firm had been preparing to put up to 500 employees back to work on a wind turbine scheme when it emerged ministers could no longer provide the necessary financial support.
A statement from the company said: "BiFab can confirm that the board has agreed to place the company in administration following the Scottish Government's decision to remove contract assurances.
"However the absence of supply chain protections in Scotland and the wider UK have consistently undermined our ability to compete with government-owned and government-supported yards outside and inside the European Union.”
The Scottish Government has argued state aid rules prevent it from bailing out the company and it ruled out nationalisation.
Three years ago BiFab workers occupied fabrication yards in Fife and Lewis, working in without promise of pay. They marched on Holyrood and asked for politicians to live up to the rhetoric of “Saudi Arabia of Renewables”.
They have been utterly failed. https://t.co/36pcuaB0es— Drew Smith (@DrewSm1th) December 2, 2020
It said majority shareholder JV Driver, a Canadian company, has failed to provide capital and other necessary requirements for the firm to secure new contracts, despite assurances at the time of acquisition.
Economy Secretary Fiona Hyslop has committed to working with administrators and trade unions to find a new future for the company's yards.
However, Alex Rowley, Scottish Labour’s economy spokesman, said the “terrible news” of the administration “exposes the fraud that is the SNP’s claims of a renewables revolution”.
He added: “The failure of the SNP government to work with the company and the trade unions to find a way forward is unforgivable and the consequences of that failure is that Scotland will continue to lose out on thousands of jobs in the renewable sector.
“All possible options available to salvage the jobs must be put on the table. We cannot allow one of the jewels in the crown of Scottish manufacturing to be lost due to incompetence and a catastrophic lack of political will.”
