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Opportunity Peterborough has revealed that the city is bidding to become the home of the Government’s new Green Investment Bank, which could create up to 100 new jobs in the city, with a significant number created additionally as a result of the bank’s investment.

The Government has signified that providing ‘green investment funds’ is a clear priority and potentially a key pillar of the economic recovery.  The Green Investment Bank will be the world’s first public bank dedicated to the green economy. The bank will be set up with £3bn of public money to help firms fund renewable energy schemes, with estimates that an extra £15 billion of private investment could be generated for major projects beyond 2015.

Neil Darwin, director of economic development at Opportunity Peterborough, said: ‘We are aware that the Government wishes to establish the bank in a city with a strong financial sector and an innovative environmental sector. On both issues Peterborough performs strongly. We face competition from a number of other cities, many of the countries biggest, but with our sector strengths, strategic location and city-wide enthusiasm, we can offer a cost-effective solution.”

The bank will start to lend money to areas such as offshore wind from next year for schemes that have ‘risks which the private sector cannot adequately finance’.  Early priorities are likely to include offshore wind, waste and industrial energy efficiency.

Opportunity Peterborough submitted a bid last week with strong support from the City’s two MPs Stewart Jackson and Shailesh Vara, Peterborough City Council, Cambridgeshire Chamber of Commerce and the Local Enterprise Partnership, and with strong endorsement from some of Peterborough’s largest businesses. At this stage there is no timescale set for decisions, however it is anticipated that we will know more in the autumn.