London mayor Boris Johnson has called on banks to help support environmentally friendly refurbishments of buildings in the city.

Today, Johnson made a speech at City Hall in London while launching the World Green Building Week in the UK, in association with the World Green Building Council. He said support by the banks could help put London at the forefront of a global retrofitting initiative.

“We need to see banks being much more creative about the funding they could provide to support retrofitting in this city,” he said.

Johnson said the Greater London Authority had already retrofitted 42 of its buildings, and claimed the investment in doing this would yield a profit of at least £1m over the next eight years.

He added that central government should take the lead on making its estate greener: “There is a huge stock of public buildings that could be retrofitted to the benefit of the taxpayer.”

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