{"id":855286,"date":"2026-03-28T04:17:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T04:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/855286\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T04:17:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T04:17:18","slug":"bristol-region-100m-green-energy-project-scrapped-after-no-interest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/855286\/","title":{"rendered":"Bristol region \u00a3100m green energy project scrapped after no interest"},"content":{"rendered":"

West of England Combined Authority had committed \u00a310m to fund\"Close-Up-Of-Smart-Energy-Meter-In-Kitchen-Measuring-Electricity-And-Gas-Use-With-Woman-Boiling-Kettle\"<\/p>\n

The Green Growth Fund hoped to cut household bills in the region by \u00a36million(Image: Getty)<\/p>\n

A \u00a3100million project to create thousands of clean energy jobs, slash household heating bills, and boost net-zero industry and innovation in the Bristol region has been quietly canned.<\/p>\n

The West of England Combined Authority<\/a> (Weca) committed \u00a310million to kickstart its Green Growth West Fund with the aim of attracting another \u00a390million from the public and private sector.<\/p>\n

Its business case, approved in 2024, said the 12-year programme across Weca\u2019s council areas of Bristol, South Gloucestershire<\/a> and Bath<\/a> & North East Somerset could create up to 9,000 green jobs, generate \u00a3300million turnover in small and medium businesses, save 230,000 tonnes of carbon, supply 36,000 homes with renewable energy, and reduce household bills by a total of \u00a36million.<\/p>\n

But the goal has turned out to be wildly optimistic as no one else has chipped in a penny.<\/p>\n

As a result, in an astonishing acceptance of defeat for such a massive project, it has been scrapped entirely, with the money going back into a general pot for other, unspecified initiatives focused on climate and nature, councillors on Weca\u2019s overview and scrutiny committee were told.<\/p>\n

The combined authority did not formally announce the news, instead it was revealed in a report to the meeting on Monday, March 23, which blamed the failure on \u2018geopolitics and market dynamics\u2019 that had \u2018shifted in ways that have reduced current appetite for investment in the sustainability agenda\u2019.<\/p>\n

It added: \u201cOur values remain unchanged, we are still committed to exploring how best to support green growth across the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weca head of grant management and assurance Pete Davis told councillors: \u201cThe Green Growth West Fund will not now proceed owing to macroeconomic factors and changing market appetites, freeing up this for redeployment to pursue other growth strategy policies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Committee chairman Bristol Cllr Jerome Thomas (Green, Clifton<\/a> ) said the withdrawal of the fund was \u2018very disappointing\u2019.<\/p>\n

He said a public finance bank, called the National Wealth Fund, which backs local government projects, had reset its terms for combined authorities since the business case was agreed and that \u2018the goalposts were moved\u2019, which was to blame for the fund being abandoned along with changing market conditions.<\/p>\n

Weca chief executive Stephen Peacock said: \u201cWhen the committee approved the \u00a310million it was very much a cornerstone investment that needed to be matched by additional private sector capital and then subsequently further by public sector co-investment to enable us to collectively go and get private sector investment.<\/p>\n

To see all the planning applications, traffic diversions, road layout changes, alcohol licence applications and more in your area, enter your postcode below or visit the Public Notice Portal <\/strong>HERE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe did talk about the design in the fund with the National Wealth Fund and closely with the local authority advisory arm who were very supportive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t making an assumption that it was definitely there but we were certainly making an assumption that we would need to find someone of their scale to co-invest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe process resulted in a conversation at their investment committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand that coincided with a new strategy in the National Wealth Fund which made it clear that their strategic direction is away from co-investing in funds now towards investing directly in large national schemes, so unfortunately that meant they could no longer continue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did consider alternative public sector investors but there doesn\u2019t appear to be the scale.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed at least \u00a310million, possibly more, in order to attract that private match which, as anyone knows how to put these funds together, you need to have scale to get the private sector interested.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo while there was plenty of private sector interest, that lack of a public sector co-investor meant we weren\u2019t able to meet the conditions that the committee had set.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s disappointing but enough time has elapsed that we need to call time on it, so that money being returned to the [Weca investment fund] headroom feels the right thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West of England Combined Authority had committed \u00a310m to fund The Green Growth Fund hoped to cut household…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[14141,14140,381,3893,748,18959,393,728,4884,14143,285,10299,10302,16,15,14142],"class_list":{"0":"post-855286","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bath-and-north-east-somerset","9":"tag-bath-and-north-east-somerset-council","10":"tag-bristol","11":"tag-bristol-city-council","12":"tag-britain","13":"tag-clifton","14":"tag-england","15":"tag-environment","16":"tag-great-britain","17":"tag-metro-mayor","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-south-gloucestershire","20":"tag-south-gloucestershire-council","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom","23":"tag-west-of-england-combined-authority"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116304874517442889","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}