Great British Energy (GB Energy) chief executive Dan McGrail has publicly defended the state-owned firm’s job creation record, responding to claims that its impact on Aberdeen has been overstated.
Speaking from the company’s newly inaugurated headquarters in Aberdeen, McGrail highlighted the ongoing recruitment drive, stating that GB Energy is currently hiring approximately “two people a week” for its local base. He projected that the total workforce at the Aberdeen headquarters would eventually reach around 300 individuals.
GB Energy was a key policy promise in the Labour Party’s 2024 general election manifesto. The company’s mandate is to invest in and co-develop clean energy and energy storage projects across the UK, aiming to accelerate the transition to clean energy, enhance energy security, and reduce household bills.
McGrail underscored the broader economic contributions of GB Energy, noting that it has already made three significant investments expected to indirectly generate approximately 1,500 jobs across its portfolio. The company has set an ambitious target to support the creation of 10,000 additional jobs by 2030 as a result of its activities.
The decision to locate GB Energy’s headquarters in Aberdeen, at Marischal Square on Broad Street, was intended to leverage the city’s historic ties to the oil and gas industry and its growing prominence in offshore wind and other renewable technologies. King Charles formally opened the offices on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, an event McGrail described as signalling that the company was “open for business”.
However, the actual number of direct jobs GB Energy would bring to Aberdeen has been a point of contention.
In 2024, chairman Jurgen Maier initially suggested that up to 1,000 people might be directly employed over the next two decades. Dan McGrail, who became interim CEO in February 2025 and permanent CEO in July 2025, later clarified the target for the Aberdeen headquarters to be around 300 staff by 2030.
Responding to persistent questions regarding the discrepancy, McGrail told BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast: “The only thing that’s changed since then is that we’re getting on with it.” He reiterated the current hiring pace, adding: “We are recruiting about two people a week at the moment.”
McGrail emphasised that the company’s true measure of success should be its broader impact: “The thing that we really ought to be measured on… is about the impact that our investments make. We’ve been given a budget to invest in the energy transition and to give a stake to the public in the energy transition. We’ve set a target to create 10,000 additional jobs as a result of our activities by 2030.”
Critics, such as Douglas Lumsden, the Scottish Conservative MP for Aberdeen South, argue that progress is falling “far short of the expectations they created.”
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Lumsden stated: “If it’s only adding two employees a week, it raises serious questions about how the government expects to reach its stated target of 300 staff in any reasonable timeframe.”
GB Energy’s initial investments include the Pentland Offshore Wind Farm off the coast of Caithness, a hydrogen manufacturing project in Sheffield, and the installation of solar panels at schools and NHS sites, primarily in England.
In Scotland, the company has collaborated with the Scottish government’s Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES), which supports community and locally owned renewable energy projects, benefiting 70 local Scottish initiatives.
