Recruiters in the renewables sector are worried more jobs will go after a major manufacturer announced plans to withdraw from the UK.

Citing weakening European demand and UK government conviction, Danish wind turbine company Vestas is cutting 625 jobs and planning to move its operations to the US and China.

Ben Cartland, an associate at Acre Resources’ climate change and energy division, told Recruiter the move echoed concerns in the sector:

“We have seen a number of our high-profile clients not only moving their established UK divisions overseas, but actively choosing to dismiss the UK as a hub to set up wind enterprises.

“I believe it is a clear indication that not enough is being done by the government to encourage companies to set up their wind turbine research and development divisions and manufacturing plants in the UK.”

The news flies in the face of the commitment Chancellor Alistair Darling made to cutting Britain’s carbon emissions by 34% by 2020 last month (Recruiter, 29 April).

Onshore turbine projects also face a potential disastrous hike in business rates because the Treasury’s Valuation Office Agency took a snapshot of energy prices in April 2008 when they were “artificially high”.

Chris Tomlinson, director of client programme strategy at trade body British Wind Energy Association, told Recruiter the impact would be significant, particularly for marginal, independent developments.

Energy giant e-on has criticised the valuation, telling Recruiter the government needs to produce more “joined-up policies” to promote onshore wind farms.

James Beazley, director of energy recruiter Six Recruitment, told Recruiter that this was a case of the government “giving with one hand and taking a lot more with the other”.

“While there are incentives which look very attractive, the proposed taxes make most of the projects that are currently on the table uneconomical,” he said.