Commenting on today’s announcement, from the Business Secretary Sajid Javid, that the government intends to sell a majority stake in the Green Investment Bank, Matthew Spencer, director of Green Alliance, which helped to broker the birth of the institution in the last parliament, said:
“The government should think twice before making dramatic changes to the ownership of the Green Investment Bank. It was built with the labour and love of many people from across politics, finance and civil society, is admired around the world, and is held in trust for all of us by its board and its executive . A sell-off would be self-defeating since it would drive the bank to lower risk projects and lead it to compete with private finance. The UK economy will continue to need the GIB’s public funding to lever private money in hard to finance infrastructure projects for many decades to come, but this can only happen with continued capital and commitment from government. We would encourage ministers to seek more private and citizen finance for the GIB, but to maintain its majority stake on behalf of the nation.”