The green investment bank: Do it now, make it big

Article

The government has committed to setting up a 'green' investment bank. Yet the sums the government is committing are tiny: £3 billion, or about a fifth of 1 per cent of GDP, which can hardly have a huge effect on the economy. Gerald Holtham argues for swift action to establish the bank, and an ambitious change of scope in its operations.

Holtham argues that the bank should be able to borrow additional funds earlier than the mooted 2015/16 date, and that such borrowing needn't count against the government's austerity drive. Rather than as loan capital, he says, the government's initial £3 billion allocation should be committed as reserves to guarantee a much larger loan, perhaps to underpin a balance sheet worth some £100 billion: disbursed over five years or so, this much larger amount could raise investment in the UK by more than 1 percentage point of GDP per year.

Related items

  1. A huge overflowing recycling bin full of discarded empty bottles of alcoholic drinks

    Taking stock: Counting the economic costs of alcohol harm

    Alcohol consumption across the UK is increasing. Government and employers must act to address the health risks.
  2. The inside of a bus. Lots of people sit or stand on a bus during daylight

    A people-focussed future for transport in England

    Our findings from three roundtables on the impact of transport in people’s lives and the priorities for change.
  3. Many national flags against blue sky

    Progressive renewal: The Global Progress Action Summit

    A quarter of the way through this century, change is in the air. Everyone, everywhere, seemingly all at once, wants out of the status quo.