Offshore wind energy: Scotland's failure to ensure its firms won a share of vast contracts is a first-class scandal – Brian Wilson

As anyone who has been to Scotland's Atlantic coast will testify, Scotland has vast amounts of wind energy to harness (Picture Jonathan Gawthorpe)

Nobody in Fife or Lewis is laughing. As the trade unions commented: “This is what political failure looks like.”

The case of Neart na Gaoithe windfarm off the Fife coast is particularly scandalous. This will be built with subsidy under the Contract for Difference scheme, secured in 2011 when it was more than double the current rate.

Approval was delayed by the Scottish government in 2014 until after the referendum, to avoid controversy since the project was opposed by the RSPB. They then stupidly lumped it together with two neighbouring consents, allowing the RSPB to go to court on grounds of cumulative impact.

The RSPB won in the Court of Session but lost on appeal. The case went to the Supreme Court. At every point on this long journey, the developers were dependent on Scottish ministers to keep the case going until finally prevailing. The project was then sold to EDF.

It beggars belief that the Scottish government, at no point, had the gumption to extract bankable assurances about supply chain content in return for support through the courts. It was a culpable level of neglect for which no head rolled.

But the news is worse than that. Not a finger has been lifted to make Scotland any better placed to win work from massive offshore projects next time round. The same outcome will repeat itself without political will and investment in infrastructure.

It is a first-degree scandal, if anybody notices or cares.

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