PRIVATE capital has moved to flex its muscles less than a week after the government launched its green energy investment vehicle GB Energy, campaigners warned today.

The company, backed with £8.3 billion from the Treasury, has the stated aim of attracting £60bn in private investment in renewables, an investment imbalance privateers appear keen to exploit.

Green energy business group RenewableUK’s Dan McGrail warned it would be “vital that [GB Energy] doesn’t disrupt the billions of pounds of private investment,” adding that the “next steps of its development will have to be formed in close partnership with the sector.”

Fresh from a Downing Street reception with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer last week, Keith Anderson, the chief executive of Scottish Power, which fuels 4.4 million British homes, hinted his company could boost its planned £12bn investment to 2028 to £24bn by 2030, for a price.

Mr Anderson said: “If the government can halve the time it takes to get projects through planning, I’ll double the amount I invest in this country.”

For energy campaigners however, the apparent growing leverage of private capital rang alarm bells.

Power to the People’s Frances Curran told the Star: “Money pouring into green energy sounds good on the surface, but it shows up everything wrong with energy in this country.

“This announcement shows clearly that GB Energy is just PFI vehicle for big business.

“Mr Anderson and Scottish Power aren’t philanthropists; this will be about some of the poorest people in our country once again paying for dividends for shareholders who already made a killing out of the misery of millions over the last few years.

“GB Energy can’t deliver a green transition without delivering a just one, and that means taking power out of the failed market and back under the control of the people.”