JESSICA in London: the London Green Fund

The London Green Fund is a JESSICA initiative investing in infrastructure schemes that deliver carbon reduction in the UK capital. It comprises two separate funds, one investing in waste reduction and the other in energy efficiency. To improve financial sustainability, it aims to bring private capital to match the public investment, and to make investments that, once repaid, can be reinvested in urban regeneration. Despite a slow start, it has now made its first investments.

Executive summary

The London Green Fund is a JESSICA instrument investing in infrastructure schemes aimed at delivering carbon reduction in the UK capital in line with the London Plan. It develops energy efficiency, waste and recycling projects in the London region that have the potential to create jobs, reduce carbon emissions and improve energy efficiency. It aims to bring in private capital to match the public investment, and to make investments (loans and equity) that allow the funds to revolve so that the returns can be reinvested in urban regeneration. The ERDF has invested €50 million in a holding fund managed by the European Investment Bank, under whose aegis two separate commercially-managed urban development funds have been set up. One focuses on waste and recycling and the other on energy efficiency.

The fund has had to overcome a number of challenges in the start-up phase, and the first investments were made four years after the launch of the operational programme. ERDF regulations and the implementation structures do not always allow the London Green Fund to operate as efficiently as it could. The target market has shrunk as a result of the economic crisis, and lower interest rates are now available elsewhere for government borrowing. Many of the projects in the initial pipeline were not investment ready, and are more complex than envisaged. It has taken time to identify and develop projects that fit the fund’s investment criteria. The first waste investment was made in early 2012 in a plastics recycling plant and the Energy Efficiency Fund has also now closed its first deal with a €25m loan to a leading London gallery.

The London Green Fund is an innovative tool for financing infrastructure that brings commercial discipline and expertise into public sector financial decisions. The current forecast is that from a €120 million starting point the fund will leverage in private investment to make a total injection of between €360 and €480 million into London’s green economy.

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