The UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds have kicked off activities to establish a National Wealth Fund that will invest in clean energy and other industries.
It comes as Reeves and Secretary of State for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero Ed Miliband convened a meeting of the National Wealth Fund Taskforce at Number 11 Downing Street to kick start this work (pictured).
Chaired by the Green Finance Institute, the Taskforce included former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, Barclays chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan, Aviva chief executive Amanda Blanc and large institutional investors.
Under the government’s new plans, the National Wealth Fund will bring together key institutions and a compelling proposition for investors.
This will mobilise billions more in private investment and generate a return for taxpayers.
Some £7.3bn of additional funding will be allocated through the UK Infrastructure Bank so investments can start being made immediately, focusing on further priority sectors and catalysing private investment at an even greater scale.
This funding is in addition to existing UKIB funding.
As part of the National Wealth Fund reforms will be made to the British Business Bank, which is overseen by the Department for Business and Trade, to ensure it can mobilise the UK’s deep pools of institutional capital by harnessing its pipeline of investments and track record as the UK’s largest investor in venture capital.
This will unlock billions of pounds of investment in the UK’s “world-leading green and growth industries”.
Reeves said: “This new government is getting on with the job of delivering economic growth.
“We need to go further and faster if we are to fix the foundations of our economy to rebuild Britain and make every part of our country better off.
“That is why in less than a week we are establishing a new National Wealth Fund and bringing together the key institutions that will help unlock investment in new and growing industries.”
Miliband said: “Our Mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower is about investing in Britain. Our National Wealth Fund will help create thousands of jobs in the clean energy industries of the future to boost our energy independence and tackle climate change.
“We’re acting immediately, wasting no time and working in lock-step with industry to unleash private investment and grow our economy.”
Carney said: “This new government has rightly identified infrastructure investment as a core enabler of building high value, low carbon, competitive industries.
“The smart use of public investment via the National Wealth Fund can kick start economic growth and crowd in private capital to vital sectors including ports, heavy industry and manufacturing.”