Reeves pledges end of instability as she announces new National Wealth Fund
The Chancellor promised a ‘true partnership’ with businesses in her speech closing the Government’s International Investment Summit.
British economic instability has ended and the new Government is bringing investment and jobs back to Britain, the Chancellor has said.
In a speech closing Monday’s International Investment Summit, Rachel Reeves told the world’s biggest businesses they can look forward to “a true partnership” with the new Government as it works to boost growth.
Ms Reeves, who continues to face questions about which taxes the Government will raise in advance of her first Budget on October 30, promised to create a tax system that supported wealth creation and investment.
She said: “When we said we would end instability, make growth our national mission and enter a true partnership with business, we meant it.
“The decisions which lie ahead of us will not always be easy. But by taking the right choices to grow our economy and drive investment we will create good jobs and new opportunities across every part of the country.
“That is the Britain we are building.”
She went on to announce two new bodies intended to deliver long-term investment in the UK using both public and private finance.
Delivering on a manifesto promise, Ms Reeves announced that the existing Leeds-based UK Infrastructure Bank will be transformed into the National Wealth Fund (NWF) with £27.8 billion to invest in clean energy and growth industries.
The NWF, which will have a broader mandate than just infrastructure investment, is expected to catalyse significant private investment in key sectors.
John Flint, who has led the UK Infrastructure Bank since 2021 and will take over as head of the NWF, said: “Building on the strong foundations we have laid as UKIB, we will hit the ground running, using sector insight and investment expertise that the market knows and trusts to unlock billions of pounds of private finance for projects across the UK.
“With additional capital to deploy against a bigger mandate, we stand ready to help the market invest with confidence, in support of the Government’s growth ambitions.”
In her speech, Ms Reeves also announced a new British Growth Partnership within the British Business Bank (BBB).
The partnership is expected to help bring institutional investors such as pension funds together with the BBB to make long-term, fully commercial investments by the end of 2025.
Encouraging British pension funds to invest more in the UK was a key goal of the previous government, and one the new Cabinet is also pursuing.
BBB chief executive Louis Taylor said: “By establishing the British Growth Partnership, the bank will encourage more UK pension fund investment into the UK’s fastest growing, most innovative companies.
“In addition, reforms to the bank’s financial framework, putting our £7.9 billion commercial programmes on a permanent footing, means we can flexibly reinvest our investment returns over the long term to increase growth and prosperity across the UK.”
Senior business figures welcomed the announcements.
London Stock Exchange chief executive Dame Julia Hoggett said the British Growth Partnership will help give UK firms “access to meaningful UK capital”, while Oliver Wyman’s UK managing director, Lisa Quest, said the NWF is “a significant milestone for the UK economy”.
