by Roger Milne
The government has named two senior utility figures as chairman and deputy chairman of the Green Investment Bank (GIB). Lord Smith of Kelvin has been appointed as chair of the new public company and Sir Adrian Montague will be deputy chair and senior independent director. The former is chair of SSE and the Weir Group; the latter is chair of the Anglian Water Group and 3i.
News of the appointments came as the administration published the legislation – the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill – that sets out the GIB’s statutory “green” purposes, establishes its independence and provides for its financing by the Treasury via the Business Secretary.
The new entity, located in Edinburgh and London, is planned to be operational in autumn 2012, subject to state aid approval from the European Commission.
Two of the purposes according to the legislation are “the reduction of greenhouse gases” and “the promotion of environmental sustainability”. These would justify the GIB investing in offshore wind, energy-from-waste generation and the Green Deal, three of the bank’s initial priorities.
The Bill also supports major changes to regulation through the creation of a new Competition and Markets Authority, which will take over the competition functions of the Competition Commission and the Office of Fair Trading. The regime will be streamlined and will involve changes to the appeals procedure. It will also entail some re-ordering of the sector regulators’ concurrent competition powers.
This article first appeared in Utility Week’s print edition of 1 June 2012.
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