The government calls it a windfall tax.

The government calls it a windfall tax.

Let’s look at what it actually produced.

The OBR originally forecast the Energy Profits Levy would raise £65.7 billion.

They have revised that down to £21.1 billion.

In the same period: 1,000 North Sea jobs lost per month. Nine out of ten supply chain companies looking overseas. Production forecast to fall 40% within five years.

That is not a windfall. That is a controlled demolition with bad maths.

I have been reading the House of Commons Library briefing on North Sea taxation. It is a public document. Anyone can find it. The numbers are not disputed.

£10.6 billion in tax receipts in 2008/09.

£0.5 billion by 2020/21.

Back up after Ukraine.

Now forecast to fall to £0.1 billion by 2030/31.

The Treasury got its short-term headline. The North Sea got the consequences.

Here is the question nobody in government wants to answer:

What was the plan for the people?

Not the policy. Not the net zero target. The people.

The engineers. The inspectors. The HSE specialists. The project managers. Thirty years of expertise that took thirty years to build.

Because wind, hydrogen and SMRs may well be the future.

But those jobs are not here yet.

And the skills we are losing right now will not wait.