Mark and Mike Crockart, MP for Edinburgh West, yesterday led a delegation of Scottish business leaders to lobby the Secretary of State for Scotland, to make the case for Edinburgh to become home to the UK’s Green Investment Bank.

Mark has been arguing strongly both in the media and Parliament for the Bank to be based in Edinburgh. He set out the case in an article for the Scotsman back in September which you can read here.

At the meeting in the Scotland Office in Edinburgh, all parties agreed that the MPs and business leaders will now draw up a formal business case, which they will then present to the Secretary of State in a few weeks.

Mark commented:

“There is now a powerful body of support for Edinburgh to be the HQ of the Green Investment Bank. Our city has the expertise in all the necessary areas, and basing it here would be a major boost not just to the financial and renewables sector but for the economy as a whole.

“It is an initiative which would ensure that not just Edinburgh but Scotland as a whole would continue to be a world leader in a sector where there is no doubt there will be more jobs in the future.

“I hope that the Coalition Government will see the strength of our case.”

Ron Hewitt, Chief Executive of Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, added:

“I was greatly encouraged by the Secretary of State for Scotland’s commitment to establish a UK Green Investment Bank and was grateful for the opportunity to highlight the assets that should make Edinburgh the obvious choice as the preferred location.

“Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce urges the coalition Government to locate the UK Green Investment Bank near the source of the country’s most significant assets in wind and wave energy and to use the limited funds available from the government to mobilise the private finance we need to transform the UK’s energy system. Locating it beside what will undoubtedly be the UK’s and Europe’s green energy hub would kickstart debt markets for energy efficiency and enable the development of the offshore technology that will make the UK world leaders in harnessing nature’s resources and engineering a low-carbon economy.”