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Banking on the bankers
THE list is out. Nottingham’s bid to host the Green Investment Bank next year has been officially noted and the city is now on the Government’s official list of contenders. Unfortunately, it’s quite a long list and includes big hitters such as Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, Cardiff and Edinburgh. And London. Other competitors hoping to lure the bank include Warrington, Paisley, Gloucester, Chester, Brighton, Angus, Derby and apparently generic locations such as ‘Wales’ and ’Yorkshire.’
Nottingham’s own bid, steered by a Nottingham Green Investment Bank group, was formulated to respond to Government guidance published in May which defined the bank’s role, governance and location requirements. These include proximity to banks, private equity firms, utilities, access to green expertise and ‘green thought leadership.’ Invest in Nottingham, which wrote the bid document, believes Nottingham has all of these qualities – and has offered Loxley House as a possible early location for the bank’s 50-100 employees.
As well as the obvious kudos of hosting a bank designed to ‘accelerate private sector investment in the UK’s transition to a green economy’, the GIB’s presence in Nottingham would bolster the city’s financial services sector and attract investors, low-carbon companies and professional services keen to be in proximity to the bank. So goes the argument. An announcement on the location is now expected at the end of March. But given that the list of location competitors was announced just this month, does a mere three-month period before the announcement is made suggest that a decision on the location has already been made?
Neil Horsley, of the Nottingham Green Investment Bank Group, thinks not. “We are confident that Nottingham is able to meet the criteria laid out by BIS and are looking forward to presenting our business case to the government in January,” he said. He added: “Nottingham’s financial and professional sector are able to provide the government the experience and knowledge they need to ensure the bank can deliver a highly effective institution capable of delivering its mission to accelerate the UK’s transition to a low carbon economy.
The city’s low carbon sector would also be on hand to advise the bank in the technical areas and offer professional advice on where investment should take place. The ability for the bank to interact with the market across the UK is also a key element the Government are looking at – Nottingham’s central location and excellent connectivity to cities such as London, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and Belfast would ensure the bank’s staff are able to meet face to face with the prospective users of the bank with ease.”
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