Enabling a fair green jobs transition for the future

A new report produced by an economics think tank, the Centre for Progressive Policy (CPP), has suggested that the country does not have an evenly distributed supply of professionals with the skills required for green jobs.

The report by CPP explores both ‘green’ and ‘non-green’ professions and assesses how transferable each side is to working in a green future. The study then determined the workforce across England and Wales to understand how prepared our workforce is in each region for the green transition.

The report suggested that while the net zero transition may support the levelling up of some poorer communities, it isn’t necessarily the defining solution. The report discovered that some post-industrial regions, such as coastal Cumbria, Lincolnshire, East Yorkshire, East Norfolk and Teesside do have a larger than average proportion of individuals with the necessary skills to support green industries, but this isn’t the case for other regions. The report also suggested no clear correlation between areas experiencing high deprivation or low productivity and areas consisting of workforces with good potential of moving into green jobs.

The report found that professionals who are most capable of retraining into high-earning and higher-productivity green jobs typically live in wealthy areas. The City of London, South Cambridgeshire, Cambridge, Wokingham, and Richmond Upon Thames were identified as five areas best suited to training individuals to work in green industries.

There is hope that in some poorer regions, individuals will benefit from higher earnings by transitioning into green jobs. In areas such as Nottingham, Blackpool, Barking Dagenham and Luton, there are more individuals with green skills who have the opportunity to earn a pay rise by moving to green jobs, making it easier to develop green professionals in other well-paying locations such as inner London or Derybishire’s manufacturing groups. 

Before the election, both main groups debated that net zero would be a critical solution to the ongoing regional inequalities in the UK. The UK Government highlighted that there is an opportunity to use clean energy to generate jobs, deliver security and create hope for communities impacted by previous years of deindustrialisation. While this is a positive statement, the CPP report shows that we cannot assume that green jobs will automatically create the biggest benefits for the poorest communities, and in many examples, areas already established and professionals in a better financial situation are more likely to access the rewards of the transition.

The think tank explains that to enable the potential of the net zero transition to improve regional inequalities, policymakers must recognise that different regions are starting from very different positions. The report suggests that a new green industrial strategy is required but a ‘one size fits all’ approach fails to recognise the varied starting points for different regions. 

Ross Mudie, Senior Analyst at CPP and the report author explains that there are huge economic opportunities with the green transition, but delivering economic prosperity to poorer regions isn’t conclusive. Mudie highlights that a green industrial strategy that fails to recognise the variation in individual skills across the country risks the benefits being distributed equally to communities nationwide. 

To understand the potential of the green transition to help alleviate regional inequalities, we must focus on efforts on how to plan to reallocate individuals across industries to support the development of the green economy. 

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