USS, Brunel to help shape National Wealth Fund

Senior executives from the Brunel Pension Partnership and Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) are among the initial members of the new government’s National Wealth Fund working group.

David Vickers, Brunel’s chief investment officer, and Carol Young, USS’s group chief executive, attended the first meeting of the National Wealth Fund Taskforce on Tuesday (9 July).

They were joined by Dr Rhian-Mari Thomas, chair of the taskforce and chief executive of the Green Finance Institute. Other organisations represented included Legal & General, Aviva, Barclays, NatWest, Oliver Wyman, Equitix and Just Climate.

The taskforce also includes former Bank of England governor Mark Carney.

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, and Ed Miliband, the Secretary of State for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, convened the meeting at Number 11 Downing Street, the chancellor’s official residence.

“Building a green economy requires a step-change in coordination between the government and investors, so that the policy and regulatory environment is truly enabling for long-term investors,” said Vickers. “The National Wealth Fund comes at a crucial moment in the political cycle to help set that course.”

In a statement on social media, USS said Young’s involvement “reflected our commitment as a global investor to engage across the political spectrum to encourage the incentives and conditions that can encourage investment and respond to these challenges.”

The scheme added: “As a long-term, responsible investor with a legal duty to invest in the best financial interests of the scheme’s members and beneficiaries, we view issues such as climate change as largest systemic risks. It could have a huge financial impact if not appropriately addressed.”

How the National Wealth Fund will work
Thomas said: “The National Wealth Fund will reshape the way we approach public, private risk-sharing, providing private investors with the confidence needed to fund the technologies and infrastructure needed to drive growth and create new jobs across the UK.”

The government has already pledged £7.3 billion for the fund to help mobilise institutional capital towards UK infrastructure investments.

The taskforce will explore options for collaboration between public finance institutions and set out the best way for the National Wealth Fund to “make transformative investments across every part of the country”.

This includes co-operation with local and regional governments, according to a statement issued yesterday. Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer and deputy prime minister Angela Raynor have already met with regional mayors to “reset [the] relationship between central and local government, and discuss unlocking growth across the UK”.

The government will legislate to formally establish the fund when parliamentary time allows. It is due to announce its first policy objectives at the State Opening of Parliament on 17 July.