British Business Bank response to the National Wealth Fund

Press release 09 July 2024

We welcome today’s announcement by the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, that a new National Wealth Fund will be established to drive economic growth and unlock investment in the UK. Key institutions, including the British Business Bank and the UK Infrastructure Bank, will become aligned under the new National Wealth Fund to invest in the new industries of the future, supporting the government’s new Industrial Strategy.

This announcement is a strong endorsement of the British Business Bank’s 10-year track record, broad skills and capabilities including our position as the UK’s largest domestic investor in venture and venture growth capital and the most active late-stage investor in UK life sciences and deeptech.

We expect the National Wealth Fund to create a single coherent governmental offer for businesses and a compelling proposition for investors that will help mobilise billions more in private investment in line with a lot of our recent work, enabling us to catalyse external institutional capital, including pension fund investment, into UK high potential companies, by leveraging the British Business Bank’s scale, networks, and track record.

Louis Taylor CEO, British Business Bank