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Green bank will not open until late 2011 The Green Investment Bank promised by the government last week will not be up and running until autumn 2011 at the earliest, according to ministers and Infrastructure UK (IUK), the entity established last year to unify thinking on infrastructure across Whitehall. IUK is charged with ensuring the new bank gets off the ground. Chancellor Alistair Darling, IUK chair Paul Skinner and chief executive James Stewart said last week that the bank would provide equity funding, initially targeting offshore wind projects, followed by electric vehicle infrastructure. The plan is that the Green Investment Bank will provide "co-investment alongside utilities and other infrastructure sponsors to augment the capital that they are able to invest within the constraints they face". The strategy is spelled out in a document produced by the Treasury and IUK last week. It said: "By providing equity and potentially other forms of risk capital, the bank will have greater influence over the pace of investment in required infrastructure than other forms of intervention." The government will pump-prime the bank with the sale of government-owned infrastructure-related assets (including the high-speed rail link and the Dartford Crossing), which should yield £1 billion. This will be matched initially by a similar amount of private sector investment. So-called sovereign wealth funds, along with domestic and international pension funds and insurance companies, are expected to be interested. Consultation on the structure of the bank - and its modus operandi - will take place later this year. Source: Utility Week © Faversham House Group Ltd 2010. News articles may be copied or forwarded
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