OXFORD fell from the top spot for ethical investing in the UK to third place, according to Ethex, a not-for-profit group facilitating positive investment.

The city attracted £3.9m in the 12 months to September 2015 to finance four ethical investment projects, leaving it two places behind first-place Bath, which raised £5.3m over the same period.

In the previous year, Oxford topped the list.

Ethex chief executive officer Lisa Ashford said: “Oxford was the forerunner [in 2014] and the other areas are catching up.”

Oxford’s four positive investments over the past year include: £1.5m for the Low Carbon Hub, which facilitates renewable energy projects in Oxfordshire; £1.4m for the Phone Co-op, a national provider of telephone and internet services that is based in Chipping Norton; £815,000 for Abingdon Hydro, which develops small-scale hydroelectric projects; and £140,000 for West Oxford Community Renewables, which also assists renewable energy projects.

Miss Ashford said she expected the Low Carbon Hub to hold a second share offer in 2016, following its initial share offer in 2014, which was handled by Ethex.

Oxford-based Ethex runs a web platform for positive investment, a concept that embraces businesses which work towards the good of society, people or the environment. Miss Ashford said Ethex had raised £18m for ethical investments since the organisation launched in 2013, which is up by one-third over the past six months.

The money, which was invested by about 2,600 individuals, has gone to support about 40 charities, companies and community businesses.

Miss Ashford attributed the strong growth to greater awareness of Ethex and its goals.

She added: “We’re getting a lot more recognition now. People are getting to know us better.”

Media coverage and three awards, including City of London’s Sustainable Finance Award in the city’s annual Sustainable City Awards earlier this year, had helped to “raise our profile”, she said.

In its Positive Investing Report 2015, the organisation’s third annual report which was released last week, Ethex estimates that 2.9 per cent of the UK population, or 1.85m Britons, make positive investments and savings, which is an increase of about 100,000 from 2013-14.