The announcements made in the UK’s Budget 2021 included details about the new UK Infrastructure Bank which will have a mandate to invest in the UK’s net zero transition and in levelling up.
This institution can potentially play an essential role in delivering the patient capital needed to drive the UK’s green industrial revolution and unlock private capital at scale to create future-fit and resilient infrastructure across the whole of the UK. Further information will be released in Spring with the publication of the UK Infrastructure Bank’s framework.
The Budget announcement incorporated many of the recommendations set out in a previous E3G letter and supporting design briefing, which identified the four key design objectives of key importance to creating a successful UK Infrastructure Bank:
- Governance
- Capitalisation
- Mission-driven mandate
- A future-fit definition of infrastructure.
If the UK Infrastructure Bank is to be the transformational institution that is required to support the UK’s net zero transition, the Spring framework must provide further detail on how exactly the UK Infrastructure Bank will incorporate net-zero into its investment strategy. It should also include a commitment from HMT to increased capitalisation over time, and outline how the UK Infrastructure Bank will work with a range of stakeholders to crowd in capital for the future-fit infrastructure needed to spur a green industrial revolution.
In a letter sent on 15th April, 18 leading figures representing business, investors, trade unions, academia, and civil society called on the UK Chancellor to deliver a successful, sufficiently capitalised UK Infrastructure Bank. The letter set out some immediate reactions to the announcements made in March, and outlines the group‘s hopes for the more detailed Framework to be published in the Spring.
The letter was signed by:
Nick Molho, Executive Director, Aldersgate Group
Sean Kidney, CEO, Climate Bonds Initiative
Dr Andy Kerr, UK and Ireland lead, EIT Climate-KIC
Alice Bordini Staden, Managing Director, GLC Advisors ltd
Nick Robins, Professor in Practice – Sustainable Finance, Grantham Research Institute, London School of Economics
Dimitri Zenghelis, Senior Visiting Fellow, Grantham Research Institute, London School of Economics, and Special Advisor, Bennett Institute for Public Policy, University of Cambridge
Shaun Spiers, Executive Director, Green Alliance
Ingrid Holmes, Executive Director, Green Finance Institute
Stephanie Pfeifer, CEO, IIGCC
Sarah Gordon, CEO, Impact Investing Institute
James Cameron
Gavin Templeton, Partner, Pollination
Nick Mabey, CEO, Third Generation Environmentalism
Kate Bell, Head of Rights, International, Social and Economics Department, Trades Union Congress
Dr. Thomas Marois, Senior Research Fellow Patient Finance and Public Banking, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
Dr Olga Mikheeva, Research Fellow in Public Banking, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, UK
James Alexander, Chief Executive, UKSIF
Polly Billington, Director, UK100
Read the full letter in response to the UK Infrastructure Bank here.
