Tom Blenkinsop, Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, today expressed “disappointment” over news that Teesside-based company TAG Energy Solutions has lost out to a Belgian company on a contract to supply parts to the wind farm being constructed off the Redcar coast.

Tom said: “The demand for sustainable energy sources should have been a fantastic opportunity for business and jobs in Teesside, so this news is very disappointing.

I would have hoped that since the windfarm is being built off Redcar, that EDF Energy Renewables would have given strong consideration to using local industry for parts such as the monopiles.

The Government has failed to take the necessary action to ensure that those building windfarms in Britain and in British waters use British suppliers. At the moment, they are simply not providing the economic benefit that they should be.

I will be writing to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills to ask him to look at the way in which procurement decisions are made. I will discuss this matter with my colleagues in the Shadow Energy team.”

Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Labour MP, Tom Blenkinsop, today (8th December) revealed that 45,000 people in South Teesside were now seen as having been officially suffering from ‘fuel poverty’ on the government’s own figures – figures he described as ‘shameful’.

The figures came in reply to a question Tom put to Energy Secretary Chris Huhne, and in which a Government minister admitted that in 2009 – the last year in which figures were available – over 45,000 people in Middlesbrough, Stockton and Redcar and Cleveland were living in a situation where they were suffering from fuel poverty.

Tom said “In the UK, fuel poverty is officially defined as living in a situation where, to heat a home to an adequate standard of warmth, a household has to spend more than 10% of its income on gas or electricity.”

“These figures are old ones, but they are still shocking. It is clear that at this time, the actual figure must be now much greater, and it is an indictment of government that they are still running on old figures.”

“Poorer people on Teesside have now been hit by a ‘perfect storm’ which makes fuel poverty more likely – low pay, more unemployment, cuts in welfare benefit and soaring energy costs passed on by the big energy utilities.”

“Put simply, this means that thousands of Teesside families are now having too choose between Christmas shopping or putting cash by to meet gas and electricity bills’”

“This shocking situation – revealed in a week when the first snows of winter have fallen – has been made worse by the coalition government’s decision to peg back the winter fuel supplement brought in by Labour, by £50. We are living at a time when the fat cats can enjoy the coming holidays whilst the poor shiver.”

Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Labour MP, Tom Blenkinsop, said that last week’s summit between Prime Minister David Cameron and the UK’s leading energy companies ‘will go nowhere’ unless the government itself is prepared to underwrite investment in new energy plants – including a new 850 megawatt ‘clean coal’ power station on Teesside.

Tom said “David Cameron and Energy Secretary Chris Huhne, met with the UK’s ‘big six’ energy giants earlier this week to persuade them to jointly peg consumer prices and to also invest in new energy plants to overcome the coming energy gap now looming.”

“My own view is that this will be mere window dressing if the Government itself is not prepared to get its hands dirty by itself acting as a seed-priming agency to get this new energy capacity off the ground.”

“The energy sector say, rightly in my opinion, that they need a level playing field for long term capital investment, which has to mean state involvement.”

“Here on Teesside, we have one project which could go ahead with ease if that government were prepared to give a green light. I refer to the project being pushed by Progressive Energy. This would be a major new ultra low emission power station fuelled by coal, but which, crucially, would capture carbine greenhouse gases and pump them through a 500 km pipeline to the North Sea oil fields for storage. This project would be a win-win for both Teesside’s chemical industry as it could also take their excess CO2, and for the North Sea oil industry as the CO2 would act to boost oil production under increased underground pressure.”

“The government has in the past promised to underwrite such new power stations, as they were seen as developing engineering technologies to be a valuable future export market for the chemical engineering sector – and this too, would benefit Teesside. But now the government are dragging their feet on this, with vague talk of ‘cash after completion’ which would totally defeat such a project. If David Cameron is sincere in wanting to make progress, he should sign off this Teesside project. If he doesn’t then he merely hits both Teesside and the UK’s energy future.”