UK announces National Wealth Fund

The UK gov­ern­ment is plan­ning a Nation­al Wealth Fund to stim­u­late pri­vate sec­tor invest­ment backed by £7.3 bil­lion in fund­ing through the UK Infra­struc­ture Bank (UKIB).

Chan­cel­lor Rachel Reeves and Busi­ness Sec­re­tary Jonathan Reynolds have instruct­ed offi­cials to imme­di­ate­ly begin work to cre­ate the new Nation­al Wealth Fund by bring­ing togeth­er the work of the UK Infra­struc­ture Bank and the British Busi­ness Bank to unlock pri­vate sec­tor invest­ment to dri­ve growth.

Under the plans, the Nation­al Wealth Fund will bring togeth­er key insti­tu­tions and will tar­get investors in a bid to ‘mobilise bil­lions more in pri­vate invest­ment and gen­er­ate a return for tax­pay­ers’.

An addi­tion­al £7.3 bil­lion of fund­ing will be allo­cat­ed through the UKIB so invest­ments can start being made imme­di­ate­ly focus­ing on pri­or­i­ty sec­tors, includ­ing green and growth indus­tries, and catalysing pri­vate invest­ment. This fund­ing is in addi­tion to exist­ing UKIB fund­ing.

The Chan­cel­lor said:

‘This new gov­ern­ment is get­ting on with the job of deliv­er­ing eco­nom­ic growth. I have been clear that there is no time to waste.

‘I have pre­vi­ous­ly com­mit­ted to estab­lish­ing a Nation­al Wealth Fund. I am now going fur­ther by bring­ing togeth­er key insti­tu­tions.

‘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.

‘Britain is open for busi­ness – and the work of change has begun.’

Inter­net link: GOV.UK