Ben Peters is a Fund Manager & CEO at Wise Investment, and Charlbury resident. Wise provides investment management and financial advice for individuals, and manages a range of investment funds. Read his business and personal reasons for investing in Southill Community Energy.
Wise Investment was founded twenty four years ago in Chipping Norton. We continue to be based in the local area, and will remain so for decades to come. As I look out to the next quarter of a century, I wonder how we will responsibly resource our business. What better way to do that than to back a project that will provide carbon-free energy, generated locally?
Ben Peters, CEO Wise Investments
As a business backing Southill Community Energy we don’t just get the knowledge that the electrons powering our lights and computers have come from green sources. We will also get a financial return over the quarter century life of the project. Our mindset for our clients’ investments is long term, we intend to serve our clients for the long term, and the investment in SCE matches those beliefs. It is a necessity of running our business that we hold long term capital, and making a positive investment with a portion of that makes financial sense for us.
For a local enterprise the investment in SCE doesn’t stop at green energy and financial returns. We value the fact that the community has allowed us to build our business in the area. Indeed, many of our clients are locals. As a business that looks after other people’s money, you might say we have a vested interest in ensuring that the region remains prosperous!
“It allows us to have our cake and eat it, to generate financial returns for us, and help to improve the community”
The setting up of SCE as a Community Benefit Society thus adds a third attractive element to the proposition. It allows us to have our cake and eat it, to generate financial returns for us, and help to improve to the community. All within one straight forward investment.
On a personal note, my wife Harriet and I have individually invested in the project. Our children, Rose and Bea, attend Charlbury Primary School and we all enjoy the positive community in which we live. The outputs of green energy, investment return and benefits to the local community are as attractive to us as individuals as they are to Wise. In the very long term the beneficiaries of all of this will be Rose and Bea, and their children.
I think that’s an investment worth making.