Dundee should be a centre of excellence for renewables to create jobs in Tayside and Fife’s economy, the shadow Scottish Secretary has said.
Ian Murray said pressure on the steel industry in the central belt and problems surrounding oil and gas in the north-east made fast moves even more crucial.
Despite a memorandum of understanding being signed more than four years ago, to much fanfare from the Scottish Government, not a single of the 700 renewables jobs touted for Dundee as a priority has been delivered.
Mr Murray said: “I think a lot of investment has to go into job creation in the Dundee and Fife areas.
“It’s easy enough to say Scotland should be at the heart of renewables but nothing is happening and all of our competitors are beating us hands down.
“This is a real opportunity to champion renewables, to try and get a centre of excellence. Dundee would be a great place for it to be.
“We need to put pressure on our colleagues in the Scottish Government to fulfil the promises they have made.”
Labour’ sole MP in Scotland also spoke of the need to support research and development, life sciences and the computer games industry, insisting that proposed City Deals for Aberdeen and Edinburgh could provide knock-on boosts to local infrastructure.
The deal for Scotland’s capital would include direct investment to Fife and Mr Murray argued that added connections between the north and south of the country would boost Tayside.
As he praised Dundee’s regeneration programme, the Edinburgh South MP argued amendments he has brought to the UK Government’s Scotland Bill can help tackle the city’s employment crisis.
The Courier revealed in January that Dundee has Britain’s worst record for getting people back into work, with just 15% of jobseekers finding employment through the UK Government’s work programme.
Mr Murray wants control devolved from Westminster past Holyrood to councils to allow local priorities to take centre stage.
He said: “Given that Dundee is statistically the worst in the country and, statistically, job creation in Dundee would be better if nothing was done rather than having the work programme. So getting it into local authorities is the best place to have it.”