Autumn Statement: Green Bank stake on offer

The Government has surprisingly offered-up a slice of the Green Investment Bank to private investors, as it looks to get more money for environmentally friendly projects like offshore wind-farms.

The Autumn Statement document says the Government is “looking at options to bring private capital into the Green Investment Bank to enable it to operate more freely in delivering its objectives”.

The bank only became operational a little over a year ago with £3.8 billion of taxpayer funding available to invest in sustainable schemes.

The stake offer is part of a wider sell-off of Government assets that is targeted to bring in £20 billion by 2020. Around £12 billion of this is expected to come from offloading the student loan book, built up since 1998, while the Government’s 40 per cent stake in Eurostar has also been put on the block.

Local authorities have the carrot of being able to spend £200 million of any new asset sales they complete on the costs of reforming public services.