Labour’s National Wealth Fund a misnomer, MPs told
Labour’s National Wealth Fund faced renewed calls for clarity on Wednesday as the Treasury Committee continued its inquiry into the government’s new body.
The government’s rebrand of the National Wealth Fund (NWF) from the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) in October 2024 has raised questions amid confusion of the two bodies’ remits.
Academics and think tank officials were questioned by the Treasury Committee on Wednesday whether the words “national wealth fund” were a “good description of what this new entity is meant to do”.
Pranesh Narayanan, research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research, said the name was a “slight misnomer” with the body “closer to a sovereign investment fund or development bank than a sovereign wealth fund”.
Fellow experts Neil Lee, professor of economic geography at London School of Economics, and Chaitanya Kumar, head of economic policy at the New Economics Foundation, also said they would opt for different names for the institution.
Narayanan later added that the “change of remit” between the UKIB and NWF in terms of sectors “hasn’t changed all that much”.
He noted a “slightly loser definition” of technology and the addition of advanced manufacturing, which he said “overlap quite significantly with the original remit of the UKIB”.
Ex-City Minister and Conservative MP John Glenn said he had “been trying to discern what is different apart from a little bit of more money and I am still struggling with that.”
Labour switched course on NWF
The policy was originally a fixture of Labour’s 2024 manifesto, aiming to consolidate the British Business Bank and UKIB.
But Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) would “become” the National Wealth Fund (NWF) back in October.
Morning Wire revealed earlier this year the cost of Labour’s NWF rebrand topped £87,000.
Shadow Financial Secretary Gareth Davies told Morning Wire the transformation was “completely misleading,” accusing Labour of “gaslighting the British public” just to “satisfy the need for them to say they’ve done something”.
Reeves published a strategic steer in March outling the NWF’s eerily similar priorities to the targeted investment sectors of the UKIB outlined in 2022.
Both included focus on clean energy, digital, and transport.