Terry Murden: Disparate but closely linked, finance and renewables

Published on Monday 28 March 2011 22:49

IF THERE are two industries that represent Scotland's prospects, they have to be financial services and the renewables sector.

It is therefore apt that both are fighting their corner at the same time. Today sees the publication of a report from accountancy firm PwC arguing that the growth of financial services will depend on greater collaboration and support from government in the required infrastructure.

Also today, the campaign to secure another foothold in the nascent renewables industry will move another step forward as representatives of business groups lobby ministers in London to establish the coalition government's Green Investment Bank in Edinburgh.

That there is some overlap between these two sectors - a bank funding the green revolution - is a neat piece of synergy. Let's hope Westminster sees the logic of keeping them together.

Scotland is well-placed to capitalise on the renewables industry, now establishing itself as a core industry with the ability to create a new source of wealth and jobs.

The technology is here, in our universities, and so are the facilities at our ports. The natural resources - wind, wave and tidal power - are in plentiful supply and won't be lost. One potential concern is that the industry will be dominated and owned by overseas companies. Already the big players are Iberdrola and Gamesa of Spain and Mitsubishi, the Japanese firm. Encouraging and nurturing home grown businesses is vital. Financial services should not require external support. An industry with its roots firmly embedded in Scotland and having produced some of its most iconic companies is bigger and more powerful than the Parliament it now appeals to in order to underpin its future.

But it does need to be fuelled by other institutions, mainly to provide the technical means to operate and in the provision of the supply side skills that will sustain it. Infrastructure - in other words improved broadband connectivity - would help it catch up with those who have begun to break away from the pack. New evidence shows that the emerging nations are installing the very latest technology that the digital world knows about, and they are chasing even higher goals.

The report from PwC warns of the dangers facing Scotland as Edinburgh and Glasgow slip down the world rankings of financial centres. Sadly, the message is somewhat clouded in management speak, but it does serve as a useful and timely call to action.

Silver lining might be an increase in female bosses

THE loss of another senior figure in Lloyds Bank Group's insurance division looks like unfortunate timing.

But it could, indirectly, leave us with two women running Lloyds in Scotland.

Phil Loney, managing director of life, pensions and investments, departs for the top job at Royal London that some thought likely to go to John Deane who heads its Scottish Life subsidiary. Loney follows other leading insurance executives Andy Briggs and Archie Kane out of Lloyds in a matter of weeks, inevitably leaving some to speculate on why the business is losing some of its top talent.

Lloyds should be big and resourceful enough to have a plentiful supply of successors, though in this instance it has to replace a management team which is a less easy task.

Restructuring by new group boss Antonio Horta-Osorio means there is no direct replacement for Kane, though somebody needs to provide leadership in Scotland. Maybe there will be an enhanced role for Alison Brittain, whom Horta-Osorio has hired from his former employer Santander as head of retail to replace Helen Weir, another recent high-profile departure.

Brittain's tasks will include selling the 185-strong Lloyds TSB Scotland branch network, but she also takes on responsibility for Bank of Scotland, pitching her at the top of Lloyds operations north of the Border alongside Lady Susan Rice, formerly chief executive of Lloyds TSB Scotland and now managing director of Lloyds Banking Group Scotland.

The Rice-Brittain combination should please Lloyds chairman Sir Win Bischoff, who has backed a campaign for more women at the top.