It is vital that professionals who have completed renewable energy courses and are attempting to set up their own business receive sufficient backing from the government's Green Investment Bank (GIB).
This is the view of John Barwise, chairman of the Cumbria Green Business Forum, who stressed the sustainable finance provider should be used to develop enterprises within the UK.
He said that it would be wrong for the GIB to use its funding to support foreign organisations, not least because it would be unlikely to stimulate the economy and help out people who have taken renewable energy courses to build their own firm.
"Unless we see sufficient funding going into [it], all it will do is support other countries to utilise and capitalise on the investment bank and not our own home-based manufacturing base," remarked Mr Barwise.
Last week, energy and climate change secretary Chris Huhne suggested the GIB may be scaled back to start life as a fund before gradually developing into a bank.
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