LABOUR’s flagship GB Energy – which was touted as creating 1000 jobs in Aberdeen – has just 53 full-time staff and more than one-third of its workforce lives outside Scotland.
In total, the investment vehicle (which was initially to be a public energy company) employs 132 people, The Times reported. There are 53 full-time employees, 31 short-term staff, and 48 on secondment from elsewhere.
Of the total, 46 of the staff (35%) live outside Scotland.
The figures are a shift from those reported by The National in September last year, when 69 people were employed at GB Energy, just 13 of whom (18%) were based in Aberdeen.
However, they remain a long way off Labour’s pledge that GB Energy would create 1000 direct jobs in the Scottish city.
In February last year, GB Energy chair Jurgen Maier – who is based in Manchester – said it could take 20 years for the new body to employ that many people.
Instead, GB Energy is now saying it expects “to employ around 300 people over the next few years with the significant majority based in our Aberdeen HQ”.
Scottish Conservative spokesperson Liam Kerr told The Times: “GB Energy was supposed to create a considerable number of jobs and opportunities for people in Aberdeen. Instead, we have a handful of roles and more than a third of staff based elsewhere in the UK.
“It’s no wonder the people of Aberdeen have no faith in what was promised actually coming through on the ground.”
Kerr then went on to blame the SNP for the Labour Government’s staffing decisions, suggesting that higher-paid staff did not want to live in Scotland due to “England’s lower-tax system”.
UK Government figures released in March this year showed that more high earners have been moving to Scotland from elsewhere in the UK than leaving since 2017, when income tax bands were devolved.
The UK Government reported "large percentage increases in the number of additional/top rate taxpayers migrating from rUK to Scotland”.
In May of this year, The National revealed that GB Energy had awarded a contract worth up to £20 million to London-based firms Deloitte and Baringa Partners to cover many aspects of the day-to-day running of the body.
The contracts, which were signed on May 1, show the two firms have been awarded a shared programme worth up to £10m each, in which they will be responsible for "organisational set up support", "operational design and delivery", market strategy and "technical support".
GB Energy has also had its pledged funding cut. Initially, Labour said it would be funded by £8.3bn over the course of the current UK parliament. However, in June 2025, £2.5bn was taken from the budget and handed to a Tory-era nuclear energy body.
