UK may blow the chance to create tens of thousands of valuable jobs in wind energy

Like a headless chicken, UK treasury officials seem to be running around handing out tens of billions in attempt to keep some of Britain’s traditional industries, especially those in the service sector afloat, and some may say without any real financial justification. Even more galling is the fact that at the same time investments in replacement industries are being shunned. These are industries which could bring considerable income and profits as well as providing up to 70,000 new jobs within the next decade. The industry in question is in creating energy through wind turbines which could be positioned in and around the UK coastline.
A recent study has shown that the UK is lagging seriously behind in their target of sourcing 15% of its energy from renewable scources by the year 2020.

Wind energy is expected to comprise the largest ingredient of that target, however unless the government rapidly and begins to invest, the UK will miss out on a real opportunity to create green jobs.

On the stock exchange, Anglo Dutch publishing group, Rees Elsevier had their shares rise on after some of the leading investment banks announced that the company’s shares were undervalued. This was soon put right as on the day their shares rose by 5.9 per cent (29 pence to 487)

The media sector enjoyed mix fortunes with Thomson Reuters falling by 4.2 percent on the same session. (64 pence to 1640) The decline came after investor prediction that the company’s financial information business (Markets) will suffer a significant deterioration in sales this year.

The mining and banking sectors seemed to be the safest options yet again.

The popular British pastimes of smoking and drinking seem to be holding on their own. Tobacco giants had a good day, with British American Tobacco adding 4.3 percent (75 pence to 1566), Reckitt Benkiser also rose 4.3 percent (108 pence to 2612) and Imperial Tobacco taking up the rear with a 3.6 percent hike (61 pence to 1482). Pub operator Enterprise Inns also did well adding 10.6 per cent ( 12 pence to 126) and their colleague in the industry Marstons announcing that trading had distinctly improved since January, pushing their shares up 0.8 per cent better ( 1.3 pence to 158p)

As the lights went down, the FTSE 100 closed at 3,968.4 points, down by 20.6 points, or 0.5 per cent, lower, while the FTSE 250 dipped 42.8 points to 7,109.4 points.

The pound climbed for a second day against the dollar, as well as strengthening to less than 89 pence per euro for the first time in five weeks.

Pound/US dollar 1.998

Pound/Euro 1.1343

Pound/Japanese Yen 127.58

Pound/Swiss Franc 1.6425

Wall Street shares had a moderate day on trading with the Dow Jones Average climbing over the 8,000 mark (109.44 points to 8029.62). The Nasdaq rose a mere 1.08 points to close at 1626.8

The dollar continued to gain momentum against a weakening Euro as well as the Japanese Yen, on the back of date released showing g a monthly fall in US inflation data boosting demand for the currency.

US retail sales fell in March by 1.1 per cent, dashing recent hopes that consumer spending might finally be stabilising. Trade analysts were on the look- out for a small increase yet put the decrease down to slowing sales of cars, electronics and home appliances.

In the Far East, the news that Singapore’s trade-dependent economy has contracted by a record 11.5 per cent in the first three months of 2009 from a year ago, the 11th consecutive monthly decline was much more severe than expected. The news has forced the Singapore government to cut its full-year GDP forecast from minus 6 per cent to minus 9 per cent, making it the worst postwar performer this year.

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Tags: Alastair Darling, Economics, Fuel, GDP, Money, UK Recession