Case study · Green finance
Oxfordshire Green Investment Prospectus
Oxfordshire's Green Futures: a prospectus for net zero and nature recovery put a county-wide pipeline of net zero and nature recovery projects in front of investors. The Impact Factory's work is what comes next: turning a prospectus into invested propositions.
- Place
- Oxfordshire
- Client
- Oxfordshire County Council
- Pipeline
- £1.272bn
- Launched
- June 2025, at the 100 Together event
The challenge
A prospectus opens the shop window. It does not close a deal. Oxfordshire's climate and nature ambitions carry a price tag public funding cannot meet: an estimated £3.4bn to reach the county's net zero targets by 2050, and £800m for biodiversity restoration by 2030. Closing that gap means attracting private and institutional capital at scale.
The Oxfordshire Green Investment Prospectus was the county's answer to the first half of the problem. Developed for Oxfordshire County Council and launched at the 100 Together event in June 2025, it surfaced a county-wide pipeline through an open call for projects, triaged it through a four-stage selection process, and put a shortlist of opportunities — nature recovery and Biodiversity Net Gain, green energy, green construction, sustainable transport — in front of engaged investors.
The harder half is what follows. A prospectus showcases projects; it does not make them investable. Most sit at an early stage: no business case, no structure a lender can contract with, no route through the regulatory and subsidy questions that stop public bodies lending or guaranteeing. That conversion work — from pipeline to proposition — is where The Impact Factory operates.
What The Impact Factory is doing
1. Triaging the pipeline
More than 100 projects worth £1.272bn sit behind the prospectus. We assess each for investment readiness — who owns it, what it costs, how it repays, what stands in the way — so effort concentrates where capital can actually land.
2. Building the business cases
Public money moves on evidence. We build business cases to the HM Treasury Green Book Five Case Model, so the same document satisfies a council cabinet and an investor's due diligence — and unlocks the public funding that seeds each vehicle.
3. Structuring for compliance
Lending and blended structures sit close to regulated territory. We work with partners and their legal advisers to keep each vehicle inside the FCA perimeter and compliant with the Subsidy Control regime, so it can transact.
4. Bringing in private capital
Public funding starts a fund; private capital scales it. We identify co-investors, make the introductions and help negotiate terms, raising the leverage on every public pound committed.
5. Standing up delivery vehicles
The pipeline needs machinery, not just money: a nature recovery fund now live, with further vehicles in development across investment readiness, local impact investment and Biodiversity Net Gain habitat banking.
6. Keeping the pipeline moving
A prospectus is a snapshot; a pipeline is a process. We track every project's stage, owner and next action so the pipeline refreshes as projects mature — and investors see a flow of opportunities, not a one-off document.
The proof
The Oxfordshire Nature Recovery Fund (ONReF) featured in the prospectus as an early-stage concept. It is now a live revolving loan fund: the business case unlocked public seed funding, the structure was built to lend lawfully, and a private co-investor was introduced to channel more capital into nature. Read the ONReF case study.
Visit Oxfordshire Green Futures · The Impact Factory home · Contact: stuart@theimpactfactory.co.uk