MSP disappointed as Keir Starmer confirms Aberdeen as GB Energy HQ

The announcement, made at the recent Labour Party Conference, will disappoint Highlanders who had been hoping the company’s presence could lead to more support for the region.

Two additional sites will open in Edinburgh and Glasgow once Great British Energy is up and running.

While permanent headquarters are established, the firm will be temporarily using government buildings in the three cities. It is expected to provide Scotland with thousands of new jobs and invest heavily in the renewables sector. 

The Prime Minister told his party’s conference in Liverpool: “We said GB Energy, our publicly owned national champion, will drive forward our mission on clean energy. We said it belonged in Scotland, and it does, but the truth is it could only really ever be based in one place in Scotland.

“I can confirm that the future of British Energy will be powered as it has been for decades, by the talent and skills of the working people in the ’Granite City’, with GB Energy based in Aberdeen.”

While this outcome was widely anticipated because of Aberdeen’s historic status as the oil capital of the UK, there was still significant support from MPs in the Highlands to get the headquarters elsewhere.

As the country makes the transition away from oil and into renewables to eventually achieve net-zero, Inverness has been leading the way for renewables and had been touted as a possible alternative base for the firm.

MP for Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire Angus MacDonald told The Oban Times: "It is so disappointing that Aberdeen has been chosen instead of Inverness as the HQ for GB Energy. 

"No-one disputes Inverness is becoming the epicentre for renewables and Aberdeen has already had 50 years benefiting from the massive North Sea oil and gas bonanza.

"I wonder if the terrible transport links to the capital of the Highlands were in part responsible for the city missing out."