The next step

To the Carbon Trust Green Business Directory

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To Resource Efficient Scotland

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To RBS Energy Efficient Support

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What’s happening with the Green Investment Bank?

Privatisation debate

Plans to part-privatise the Green Investment Bank (GIB) were announced by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) in June 2015. The GIB was set up back in 2012 and was lauded as a central tenet of the government’s efforts to create a low-carbon economy. The government says that the GIB was always designed with a view to transfer it to the private sector at some point in the future. The argument is that in private hands the bank can more easily raise capital and support a larger number of projects - and the time is right to sell it off.

What might privatisation mean?

Since 2012 it has invested around £2.3 billion of public money in just 60 projects, with a total value of more than £10 billion. So the chance of accessing any of this cash to pay for your own projects was already slim.

Note. All GIB-backed projects are required to make a contribution to cutting greenhouse gas emissions or increasing the efficiency of the use of natural products. But under EU state aid rules, there are also number of stipulations as to the commercial returns each project has to deliver - making it hard to back most energy efficiency schemes because of how long it would take to secure a return on the investment. Privatisation would remove these restrictions but it’s impossible to say what criteria it might set in the future.

What now?

The most sensible decision your business can take is to finance energy and environmental projects on your own, without relying on government support.

There are options out there

Fortunately, there are still viable streams of finance available to those who are looking to invest in green technology.

Loans to pay for energy-efficient equipment - such as heat pumps, compressors, voltage management and refrigeration - are still available via the Carbon Trust (another former government body which was privatised) (see The next step ). Through its partnership with Siemens there’s a pot of £550 million available in the form of loans and leases, which are designed to be offset by the savings each technology helps generate.

If you’re in Scotland, there’s a dedicated small and medium-sized business loan scheme available from Resource Efficient Scotland (see The next step ). Loans of between £1,000 and £100,000 are available if you can prove that you will use the money to cut carbon emissions or increase your competitiveness.

Finally, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has a dedicated energy efficiency loan fund available to support projects ranging from between £25,001 and £500,000 (see The next step ).

Tip. Always speak to the supplier as they should be able to point you in the direction of a finance plan for their products.

For a link to the Carbon Trust Green Business Directory, Resource Efficient Scotland and RBS Energy Efficiency Support websites, visit http://tipsandadvice-environment.co.uk/download (EN 10.08.03).