Tories hire Lord Stern to create green bank

The Conservative Party has recruited Lord Stern, the economist hired by Tony Blair to report on the impact of global warming, to help create Britain's first environmentally-friendly investment bank.

By Louise ArmitsteadPublished: 5:45AM GMT 02 Feb 2010

The influential author of the Stern Review will help create the Conservative vision of a bank designed to channel public and private money into funding green business plans and technologies.
Bob Wigley, the chairman of Yell Group and former boss of Merrill Lynch in Europe, is also joining the working group for the bank.

The Tories have argued that Britain lags behind European, US and Asian rivals in tapping the market for green goods and services. They say this market could be worth about £1 trillion.
Both appointments will be announced by George Osborne in a speech today. The Shadow Chancellor is set to unveil the latest Tory ideas for the future of the British economy. Mr Osborne, whose plans to cut Government spending if the Tories are elected were attacked by Lord Mandelson yesterday, will outline the Conservative's measures aimed at boosting production and hastening the country's return to growth.
Lord Mandelson warned that Tory plans to cut "billions of pounds" from government spending threatened to "strangle economic recovery at birth". The business secretary made the comments as Labour published a document entitled Conservative Party Risk to Recovery.
Mr Osborne has the task of positioning the Tories as the party for growth as well as spending cuts.