{"id":4566,"date":"2015-06-25T16:48:57","date_gmt":"2015-06-25T15:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=4566"},"modified":"2015-06-25T16:48:57","modified_gmt":"2015-06-25T15:48:57","slug":"green-investment-bank-sell-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=4566","title":{"rendered":"Green Investment Bank sell-off"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>The government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s announcement to sell off a large chunk of the Green Investment Bank (GIB) to the private sector is \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a slap in the face\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) seeking much needed finance for \u00e2\u20ac\u0098green\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 manufacturing initiatives.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite was commenting as business secretary Sajid Javid announced today (June 25) plans to bring private capital into the Edinburgh-based bank, which was launched in 2012, as the first such bank in the world.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Green Investment Bank was set up to help small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to obtain the finance needed to provide assistance in developing \u00e2\u20ac\u0098green\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 manufacturing,&#8221; said Unite assistant general secretary for manufacturing Tony Burke. &#8220;SMEs produce 80 per cent of the manufacturing output in the UK.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bNow the rug has been pulled from under the SMEs and it is back to square one with these businesses having to rely on borrowing from the tight-fisted mainstream banks. It is a slap in the face for these entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe government has no enthusiasm to invest in manufacturing, \u00e2\u20ac\u0098green\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 or otherwise,&#8221; Burke added. &#8220;This is another blow to the calls from Unite, amongst others, for a coherent manufacturing strategy for the next decade.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt also poses serious questions about the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s commitment to a low carbon economy, given that only last week ministers said they were ending the subsidies for onshore wind farms from April next year.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite called for a Green Investment Bank, and while it has played an important role in supporting a greener economy, the GIB that was created is constrained. The government should be giving it borrowing powers rather than selling its share.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The GIB has invested \u00c2\u01412 billion of public money since 2012 in 50 green infrastructure projects and seven funds in 240 locations around the UK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s announcement to sell off a large chunk of the Green Investment Bank (GIB) to the private sector is \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a slap in the face\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) seeking much needed finance for \u00e2\u20ac\u0098green\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 manufacturing initiatives. &nbsp; &nbsp; Unite was commenting as business secretary Sajid Javid announced today (June 25) plans to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4567,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[32],"wps_subtitle":"Government move 'slap in the face' for SMEs","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4566"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4566"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4568,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4566\/revisions\/4568"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}