The National Wealth Fund (NWF) builds on the success of the former UK Infrastructure Bank. At least £5.8 billion of the NWF’s capital will focus on the sectors announced in the manifesto: green hydrogen, carbon capture, ports, gigafactories and green steel.
Ongoing
The National Wealth Fund (NWF) builds on the success of the former UK Infrastructure Bank. It will have a broader mandate, extending beyond infrastructure to support delivery of the wider industrial strategy in areas where there is an undersupply in private finance.
At least £5.8 billion of the NWF’s capital will focus on the sectors announced in the manifesto: green hydrogen, carbon capture, ports, gigafactories and green steel.
The NWF will be equipped with the products, mandate, and risk capital to catalyse private capital most effectively. It will be the UK’s new impact investor, funding impactful projects that would not have happened otherwise, and unlocking growth opportunities across the UK.
We provide £27.8 billion of finance and partner with the private sector and local government to support projects which help crowd in private investment and drive growth across the UK.
We are wholly owned and backed by HM Treasury, but operationally independent. Our relationship with HM Treasury is set out in our Framework Document.
Our investments must meet our triple bottom line: tackling climate change and driving regional and local economic growth; generating a positive financial return to create an enduring institution; being additional in the market, mobilising private finance.
Our local authority team has the skills and capacity to offer impartial advisory services, and the lowest cost finance for local authority infrastructure projects.
Our investments are designed to amplify government policy and to solve financing problems. We want to partner with the private sector and local government to increase investment and drive growth across the UK.
According to our triple bottom line: our investments must achieve one or both of our strategic objectives, generate a positive financial return and demonstrate additionality – focusing where there is an undersupply of private sector financing and reducing barriers to investment – thereby crowding-in private capital.
While our first Strategic Plan, published in 2022, remains the basis of our approach, a series of updates were published in 2023.
Our strategy update for private sector investments sets out more detail about our approach to tackling infrastructure financing challenges, and the areas in which we see opportunities to solve problems.
Our Local authority lending and advisory strategy update provides new detail on our local authority advisory services and lending offer, as well as the areas in which we are building our expertise in response to demand: retrofit, heat networks, transport and place-based growth
Our strategy update identified seven areas in which we see opportunities to tackle infrastructure financing problems. All can deliver on our triple bottom line and are significant parts of government’s ambition for the net zero transition and support local growth.
We have published documents focusing on each of these areas, setting out our current view of the market, the problems we want to solve and how we can help. Our approach will adapt as market conditions change.
