The director of the British Chambers of Commerce has called on Andy Burnham to authorize continued extraction from the Jackdaw and Rosebank oil and gas fields in the North Sea. The organization represents 50,000 businesses employing 7.5 million people across the country.
The BCC argues that permitting domestic extraction would be preferable to importing liquefied natural gas, which it characterizes as both more expensive and environmentally less favorable. The director expressed concern that the transition away from oil and gas production is not being managed effectively, with the expansion of offshore wind energy failing to generate sufficient employment opportunities for workers displaced by the declining North Sea industry. She noted that local suppliers are not being adequately integrated into new offshore wind supply chains, with much equipment still sourced internationally.
Business representatives from Aberdeen and the northeast have raised concerns about potential widespread unemployment similar to historical coal industry decline. The BCC has also highlighted a broader “cost-of-doing-business crisis,” reporting that the overall cost of doing business has increased by 70 percent over a decade when accounting for taxes, regulation, minimum wage requirements, and trade friction from Brexit.
The organization is urging Burnham’s incoming administration to address these cost pressures, particularly through reforms to business rates and energy costs. While welcoming the government’s planned Business Industrial Competitiveness scheme for energy-intensive sectors, the BCC contends that its current scope is insufficient, noting that a quarter of its members reported struggling to pay energy bills even before recent regional developments.
The BCC emphasized that economic growth remains the optimal path forward and warned against increasing business taxation. The organization also called for pragmatic, specific solutions to ongoing issues affecting business operations, including trade arrangements with the European Union.
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