After months of groundwork, in July, Rachel Reeves, chancellor of the exchequer and a member of the Labour Party in the United Kingdom, announced the creation of a £7.3 billion ($9.4 billion) National Wealth Fund (NWF) to kickstart economic growth and attract private sector capital for big infrastructure projects across the United Kingdom.
The NWF will unite the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) and the British Business Bank to unlock billions of pounds of investment in the United Kingdom’s green and growth industries, according to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), whose members work with the UKIB. The goal is for NWF to become “the main conduit for public investment in infrastructure and reduce the investment risk for private funding or institutional capital in the kinds of innovative assets that are going to be necessary to achieve net zero and generate international competitive advantage,” stated the ICAEW.
“I have previously