Tories promise green investment bank

Shadow Chancellor George Osborne has said the Conservatives would establish Britain's first 'green' investment bank and would reform the climate change levy, if it is elected later this spring.

Last November, Osborne said his party was consulting on the idea, which has been proposed by a number of groups, including Green Alliance and the Aldersgate Group (Environment Analyst 26-Nov-09).

The promises are included in a policy document launched yesterday, entitled A new economic model: eight benchmarks for Britain. In it, the Tories say a green investment bank "will draw together money currently divided across existing government initiatives, leverage private sector capital to finance new green technology start-ups and back the bright ideas of the future."

Most of the document's other promises in relation to the green economy are almost identical to current government policy. However, the Tories say they would reform Labour's "ineffectual" climate change levy "so that it is more closely linked to carbon emissions in order to provide the right incentives for investment in low carbon technologies".

The document also promises to increase the proportion of tax revenues accounted for by environmental taxes, but does not say to what extent this would be achieved by cutting non-environmental taxation rather than increasing existing, or creating new, green taxes.

• Conservatives news release
• policy document