Two of Scotland's most prominent business leaders have urged Chancellor Rachel Reeves to scrap the windfall tax on oil and gas companies and lift the government's ban on new licences ahead of next week's Budget.
Martin Gilbert, former head of Aberdeen Asset Management, and Sir Ian Wood, ex-Wood Group boss, released a joint statement Friday calling for urgent action to save the struggling energy sector in Aberdeen and northeast Scotland. The pair demanded three specific measures: ending the windfall tax in the next financial year, approving "shovel ready" North Sea projects like Jackdaw and Rosebank within weeks, and immediately reversing the ban on oil and gas licensing.
The statement warned that the region is losing companies and workers "at an alarming rate" due to what they called a «punitive fiscal and regulatory regime endured by the oil and gas industry which is haemorrhaging investment in the North Sea with the UK relying ever more on carbon and costly imports from overseas.»
Economic and Environmental Case
Gilbert and Wood argued the region could become «a genuine global leader» in offshore renewables. But they said this future «can only be realised if we have a critical mass in companies located here to deliver them and, right now, we are losing them, and the people they employ, at an alarming rate.»
The business leaders pointed out that the government itself recognizes oil and gas will be needed in Britain's energy mix «up to and beyond 2050». They called it «surely common sense to incentivise the production of our own domestic supply» rather than importing from overseas.
Windfall Tax Criticism
The statement took direct aim at the windfall tax's effectiveness. «Yet the windfall tax has achieved the exact opposite whilst simultaneously delivering a massive decline in revenues for the Treasury compared to what it was intended to raise,» they wrote.
They characterized the government's position as «economically and environmentally incoherent». The proposed measures, they argued, would «inject much needed economic growth in the UK economy and deliver the fair and just transition that has been promised for the very same workers who will be critical in achieving the UK's energy security for generations to come.»
The statement concluded with an urgent call: «We must act now.»
The UK Government has been contacted for comment.
Note: This article was created with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
