Written Question
Thursday 24th July 2025
Asked by:
Baroness Prentis of Banbury (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Community Municipal Investment (CMI) green investment bonds, such as those offered by the London Boroughs of Greenwich, Southwark, Hounslow and Hammersmith and Fulham, are authorised by any regulator; and whether retail investors in such municipal bonds have any form of protection under the (1) Financial Services Ombudsman Scheme or (2) Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
Answered by Lord Livermore
- Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 establishes a framework whereby any person, whether an individual or firm, can only carry out a regulated activity by way of business if they are authorised by the appropriate regulator or are exempt from the authorisation requirement. Under this framework, the government determines which activities are regulated activities, by specifying them in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order 2001 (RAO).
Where local authorities are the issuers of bonds, or borrowers under loans, they themselves would not require authorisation from a financial services regulator to act in that capacity, and would not be subject to regulation by the financial services regulators.
Financial services firms facilitating access to such funding by local authorities may, depending on the circumstances, be subject to regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority, and investors may be eligible to refer disputes with the regulated firm to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Depending on the precise circumstances of any products offered, compensation in the case of default may be available under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
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High Speed 2
"With that in mind, Mr Hosie, I endorse wholeheartedly everything said by the first three speakers, and particularly my right hon. Friend the Member for South Northamptonshire (Andrea Leadsom), who truly eviscerated the business case for HS2. I politely disagree with the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Liam …..."Baroness Prentis of Banbury - View Speech
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Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 10 Jul 2019
High Speed 2
"Nimbyism, as the former Secretary of State says...."Baroness Prentis of Banbury - View Speech
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Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 10 Jul 2019
High Speed 2
"No, I will carry on, if I may; I have no time.
I reject the nimbyism argument. We are building far more houses in my constituency than in the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill’s, finishing three a day at the moment. We embraced the Oxford-Birmingham canal in the …..."Baroness Prentis of Banbury - View Speech
View all Baroness Prentis of Banbury (Con - Life peer) contributions to the debate on: High Speed 2
Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 10 Jul 2019
High Speed 2
"I do not want the Minister to be in any doubt that worries about NDAs come from only one side of the House. On the Conservative Benches, we are equally concerned about the governance of HS2. NDAs are a real concern to us in getting to the bottom of what …..."Baroness Prentis of Banbury - View Speech
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Mon 29 Apr 2019
HS2: Buckinghamshire
"As you know, Mr Speaker, our constituents also feel that they are being trampled under the great white elephant of HS2. My question relates to the difficulty I have in getting straight answers out of HS2 Ltd. I had a meeting in my office on 1 April in which I …..."Baroness Prentis of Banbury - View Speech
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Wed 13 Feb 2019
Communities: Charities and Volunteers
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Wed 13 Feb 2019
Communities: Charities and Volunteers
"I do. Those are fabulous local groups, and we are lucky enough to have them in my area too. My hon. Friend is quite right to draw attention to them.
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Fri 08 Feb 2019
Value Added Tax Bill
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 08 Jan 2019
Finance (No. 3) Bill
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