National Wealth Fund statement on Budget and additional capitalisation
At today’s Budget, the Chancellor announced an additional £15.4bn boost and an enhanced role for the National Wealth Fund, enabling the organisation to continue investing at scale in the UK’s future.
Today, the Chancellor has written to the National Wealth Fund, highlighting its role as a key partner in delivering the infrastructure investment needed to support growth and economic renewal across the UK. The Chancellor has allocated an additional £15.4bn of capital to the Fund, which is expected to create or support around 100,000 jobs by 2035[1] and help sharpen the Fund’s focus on strengthening Britain’s security, resilience and industrial growth.
Beyond the capital injection, the National Wealth Fund is playing a central role across a series of measures announced today spanning security, energy, strategic sites and local growth:
· The Fund will substantially increase its focus on defence, alongside critical minerals and artificial intelligence and its supply chains. This includes a new commitment for the National Wealth Fund and British Business Bank to deploy up to £5 billion over the next four years into defence, dual use, and other sectors that support our national security, sovereign capability and resilience.
· With the leaders of other public financial institutions, the Fund’s CEO today has signed a joint offer to regional and local leaders committing to bring together the capabilities of the UK’s public investment bodies to get behind locally led ambitions so that more communities can benefit from investment, jobs, homes, infrastructure and growing businesses.
· The Fund will support and partner with Mayors to deliver Good Growth Funds, which bring together public finance, local leadership and private investment to back opportunities that reflect the strengths and priorities of places across the UK.
· The Fund is also partnering with the Office for Investment to deliver the Strategic Sites Accelerator, providing over £700m in financing to help bring forward strategically important commercial and industrial sites which deliver on mayoral priorities.
· In addition, £2bn of the new capitalisation will be allocated to the formation of the Energy Wealth Fund, housed within the National Wealth Fund and focused on investing revenues from the North Sea in clean energy projects that will create jobs, strengthen our energy security and build the industries of the future.
As detailed in its Strategic Plan at the start of the year, the National Wealth Fund will continue to support investment in Industrial Strategy sectors, including clean energy, transport, advanced manufacturing and digital and technologies, helping drive the UK’s reindustrialisation.
Oliver Holbourn, National Wealth Fund CEO, said:
“The Chancellor’s letter recognises the work done to date by the National Wealth Fund and our brilliant people, and reinforces the critical role we are playing in delivering the infrastructure investment that sits at the heart of the government’s security, energy and place ambitions.
“We look forward to continuing our work with government departments, industry partners and private investors to put this capital to work for the taxpayer, crowding in private investment, driving growth and enhancing the UK's sovereign and strategic capabilities.”
[1] National Wealth Fund analysis suggests that £15.4 billion of planned investment could create or support around 100,000 jobs by 2035-36. The estimate is based on the employment impact delivered by 87 investments already made by the Fund and applies that evidence to the Fund's assumed future commitment profile. The analysis separates jobs created from jobs supported and phases the impact over time using assumed employment profiles based on portfolio data.
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