GB Energy has come under renewed political pressure after figures showed its workforce remains far below the 1,000 or more jobs Labour said its Aberdeen headquarters could create.

The SNP has seized on reports that around a third of people currently working for the UK Government’s flagship energy company live outside Scotland, arguing the organisation has failed to deliver for Aberdeen and the wider Scottish energy sector.

Labour said in 2024 that locating GB Energy’s headquarters in Aberdeen would create “1,000 or more” jobs.

The organisation currently has 53 permanent employees, alongside 31 people on short term contracts and 43 working on secondment.

That gives GB Energy a current workforce of 127, although the SNP argues fewer than 10% of the 1,000 promised jobs have actually been delivered because many of those positions are not permanent.

According to figures reported by The Times, 46 people working within the organisation do not live in Scotland, while only a small number of its jobs are currently based in Aberdeen.

The company’s chairman also lives in Manchester.

The figures have given the SNP fresh ammunition in its wider attack on Prime Minister Andy Burnham and what the party has labelled “Manchesterism”.

SNP MSP Jack Middleton said:

“A GB Energy chief living in Manchester, a number 10 North in Manchester and Scottish democracy “off limits”, this is what “Manchesterism” means to the people of Scotland.

“Fewer jobs and less power.

“Their flagship GB Energy was meant to create 1000 jobs in Aberdeen with tens of thousands of renewables roles too, but what do we have?

“A handful of jobs in Aberdeen and cash pumped into English nuclear power and Wimbledon solar panels.

“The fact is 1000 energy jobs are being lost a month in our energy sector and the Labour Party expect us to be happy with an irrelevant organisation run from England.

“GB Energy has been a complete for Scotland and perfectly illustrates why Scotland’s energy must be in Scotland’s hands.

“Scotland’s energy has always been and will always be a resource to be milked dry by Westminster and this latest revelation serves to underline exactly why Andy Burnham’s words about where power lies on these islands is limited to England only.”

The row comes amid wider arguments over the future of Scotland’s energy industry and where the jobs associated with the transition towards renewable power will ultimately be based.

For Aberdeen in particular, the original promise surrounding GB Energy mattered because the city is attempting to manage a profound transition from its traditional oil and gas economy towards new forms of energy.

The latest workforce figures do not establish where GB Energy’s eventual workforce will settle as the organisation develops.

They do, however, leave a considerable distance between the jobs currently in place and the scale of employment originally promised for Aberdeen.