Green investment bank announced

• Mar. 30 by Manish Patel (0)

Chancellor Alistair Darling has announced plans to set up a £2 billion green investment bank.

The money would go towards low carbon industries such as wind energy as well as wind turbine production. This sector already employs approximately 8,400 people from the West Midlands.

£1 billion would be raised from the sale of assets including the Channel Tunnel rail link and the other half will come from private investment.

Government funding of £60m will be used to improve offshore wind farms and help improve ports that are understood to act as manufacturing centres for the new offshore developments.

Chris Crean who is a West Midlands Campaigner for Friends of the Earth feels the plan is a step in the right direction.

‘We can start to move towards a greener economy and reduce carbon emissions. I welcome this move and have campaigned for this to happen for some time now.

By investing in jobs for local people this will lead to more job opportunities and training.’

However Crean still has his doubts about the plan.

‘The devil is in the detail. Two billion nowadays in not a lot of money and we need to drive forward green issues.’

Jon Hunt who is a Liberal Democrat Councillor for the Perry Barr Ward believes that the plan is a positive move but feels there are potential drawbacks.

‘It won’t provide serious capital unless it is backed by the main banking industry. The government doesn’t have the resources and £2 billion is minuscule as a nationwide investment.

We need a much more significant shift of resources and government capital investment.’

Hunt also added that the money is likely to go towards power stations.

‘The Chancellors comments seemed to major on ‘energy security’ which suggests he is actually expecting the money into power stations.’