City in straight fight with London for green bank HQ

Published on Tuesday 19 April 2011 08:27

EDINBURGH has made "a very strong case" for locating the UK Government's new Green Investment Bank in the Capital, Business Secretary Vince Cable told a city audience.

He confirmed the question of where the new institution would be based was a straight choice between London and Edinburgh. And he said he expected to make a decision on the way forward "probably by the end of May" and fix the headquarters "within a pretty short period" after that.

The bank is intended to provide finance and attract private investment for green projects which are too risky to find funding through the market.

Mr Cable told a meeting organised by Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, which has lobbied heavily for the bank to come to the Capital, that he would consider carefully all its members had said.

He said: "Ultimately I have to decide and I will be seriously popular or seriously unpopular with this audience, but certainly a very strong case has been made."

Mr Cable later found himself under attack after comments criticising the Tories, which were included in a draft speech circulated in advance, were omitted from what he said to the meeting.

He did tell his audience: "We entered the coalition with the specific purpose that you did not get a fully-fledged Conservative government and that we moderated some policies." However, the draft speech went further, saying: "I remember the negative side of Thatcherism - the poll tax, mass unemployment and the claims that there was no such thing as society. That's why I'm glad the Tories aren't in power by themselves at Westminster. We have stopped the Tories behaving like they did under Thatcher."

Mr Cable said afterwards that he stood by the comments and even read out part of the draft speech so they were on the record.

A Lib Dem spokeswoman said he was well known for not sticking closely to a script. But Labour claimed Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg had wanted to silence his Lib Dem colleague's criticisms.

Scottish labour leader Iain Gray said: "Clearly Nick Clegg tried to stop Vince Cable making this speech because it is an astonishing attack on his coalition partners. He is clearly uncomfortable with the government of which he is a senior member."

Mr Cable denied the coalition would harm Lib Dem chances at the Holyrood elections. "This is an election for the Scottish Parliament, it's not an election to the Westminster Parliament, so it's entirely right that they should have a distinct approach to the Scottish Parliament."