Green Investment Bank sell-off raises several red flags

Taking the government's own low-carbon lender out of the state sector is only likely to make it more risk-averse and less effective

David Cameron likes to boast that his coalition government was the first in the world to create a green investment bank to accelerate investment in new energy infrastructure. Now the new Conservative government is a seller. A plan to start to move the Green Investment Bank (GIB) into private ownership will be announced on Thursday.

This policy will be pitched as a way to liberate the GIB to lend even more. Look, we will be told, our creation is so successful that it can make its own way in the world while staying true to the original ambitions.