More than 70 business leaders from across Bristol are this lunchtime pledging their support for the city’s bid to be the home of the new Green Investment Bank.
Bristol is competing against up to 20 rival towns and cities to be the location for the bank, which will help spur the UK’s drive to a low-carbon economy by supporting green and sustainable industry and energy projects.
Bristol launched its bid campaign, called Bristol: The Natural Home for the Green Investment Bank (GIB), shortly before Christmas with a high-profile delegation to the Houses of Parliament.
Today the case for Bristol is being outlined to the city’s business community at a briefing held at law firm Burges Salmon’s showpiece waterfront offices at Temple Quay.
The area around the Temple Quay office park and nearby Temple Meads station is to become the city’s Enterprise Zone, and a possible location for the bank.
Bristol’s case is built on:
* Its superior credentials in the environmental technology are stronger than anywhere else in the UK. The sector and the transition to a low-carbon economy holds the key to the future prosperity of UK plc
* It boasts the second-largest economy outside of London
* It has competitive property prices compared to London
* It has greatly benefitted from a brain drain from London – there is world-class expertise and experience, easily on a par with London, in Bristol for GIB to draw upon
* It is extremely well connected to national/global markets
* It has a booming digital and creative industry, which is closely aligned to the growth of the green technologies sector.
Speaking at today’s event will Andrew Garrad, president of Bristol-based GL Garrad Hassan, the world’s leading renewable energy consultancy, Bristol West MP Stephen Williams, Bristol City Council leader Barbara Janke, and Colin Skellett, chair of the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership.
Bristol Business News is backing Bristol’s GIB bid. We will be running a series of features and interviews over the next few weeks in our weekly e-bulletins explaining why the GIB should be located in Bristol. To subscribe, enter your name and email address in the boxes at the top left of this site.
For Bristol Business News’s recent analysis of Bristol’s case go to http://www.bristol-business.net/?p=3874.
