The UK government's first development bank for infrastructure measures, which is also supposed to finance climate-friendly projects, starts work in Leeds.
The state development bank will be endowed with 12 billion pounds (14 billion euros) of capital and can raise another 10 billion pounds of capital with state guarantees.
It is intended to help initiate projects and investments worth more than 40 billion pounds.
Philip Plickert
Business correspondent based in London.
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"The UK Infrastructure Bank will accelerate our ambitions to tackle climate change and take the country to one level," said Finance Minister Rishi Sunak.
The focus is on projects for clean energy supply, transport infrastructure, digitization, water supply and waste disposal.
Promote structurally weak parts of the country
The head office of the development bank in the northern English city of Leeds is also part of the program, because the government has set itself one of its goals to promote structurally weak parts of the country, for example in the old industrial regions of northern and central England, and to equalize living conditions in the kingdom.
A prestige project is the express train connection from London to Birmingham and later to Manchester and Leeds. Boris Johnson's government won the 2019 election through success in former Labor constituencies in northern England. The central bank has also announced that it will relocate part of the bank and its management staff to Leeds. The public broadcaster BBC will also employ more people in the north of England in the Manchester area.