Create an innovation hub to support the low-carbon economy

We have world-leading industries in the low-carbon economy, but central government policies have crippled them, causing massive job losses, and leaving the UK as one of the only countries in the world where solar deployment is dropping. Yet we still have solar panel and battery manufacturers in the North East, and world leading facilities like the Offshore Wind Innovation Hub at Catapult, NAREC Distributed Energy, and Innovation Hubs at the Helix in Newcastle and in Northumbria and Newcastle Universities. We have the possibility of being the first Smart Grid in the UK, and I’ll fund the planning for this project, to give us energy independence and end fuel poverty.

By actively pursuing funding, and coordinating all the other policies in this manifesto – skills training, access to finance, increased solar and wind deployment, negative carbon house building, and world-class environmental education – we’ll create the capacity and demand locally to accelerate and scale up industries, ready to be national and international leaders in the green economy. This will provide the highly paid, skilled jobs of the future.