Speeches by Dean.

“Dr Surico, did you want to come in?”

“The capital spend is not dramatically higher than it was previously. I suspect a lot of that might be going on fixing crumbling hospitals, which, as Dr Surico said, does not enormously enhance productivity. It means that we have better assets than we had before, but it is not replacing or generating new assets, and we …”

“Ms Miller, I was struck by your comment that the big uplift in health spending may not be enough for the Government to meet all their objectives. I have a figure in front of me that says that around 90% of the real-terms increase in day-to-day Whitehall spending is going to health. We also heard from the Governor of th…”

“You mentioned looking at things in the round; would you include non-structural tax relief in that as well? The Treasury seems to rarely go back and look at the success or failure of those reliefs. Do you think that is something that should be brought into the spending review process?”

“We asked other panellists earlier about the differences between British Business Bank and National Wealth Fund. Is it clear to you which one you should be going to? Do you think that the National Wealth Fund is the right fit for you?”

“We had quite a discussion about equity during the first panel. You do not fear that it would put off private investors? Do you think that it is a good way for the Government to make an investment?”

“I am thinking about how the National Wealth Fund could provide you with capital. There are lots of different options out there—we have talked about guarantees and equity stakes. Is there any preferred method for you, or are you open-minded?”

“Of course, the National Wealth Fund is also looking at meeting the Government’s own objectives. Do you think there will be alignment with what you are trying to do as well?”

“Dr Turner, I will turn to you now, and we will play back some of those questions to you as well, but in your evidence you spoke about private investors sometimes being reluctant to invest in infrastructure in your industry because of the uncertain market conditions. Can you explain to us how the National Wealth Fund mi…”

“I was going to ask a question about PuFIns—I am not sure if anyone else has come across this term; we discovered it recently to describe public financial institutions. I do not know if you are familiar with it. My question is more about the confusion between the different ones we have. The National Wealth Fund and the …”

“My question was what your criteria would be for assessing why those were strong candidates. Would there be other sectors that you would rule out, potentially because it might put off other investors, and you are trying to crowd in capital? Can you explain in which scenarios you would want to go for the equity option, a…”

“I think that the public would understand well that they should share in the profits. I guess the push-back would be, “Why wouldn’t you do that on every project?”, because you would presumably want to go for a different type of investment option according to the project. Can you explain to us in which cases an equity po…”

“Mr Kumar, you have written some interesting things about the National Wealth Fund being encouraged to take up more equity positions. Could you expand on why you think it should do that?”

“I know we said to be cautious about the Canadian example, but I also have something here that says it has been criticised for deploying its capital too slowly. Does anyone have anything to say to that point?”

“That is fine. Is what I am hearing that, perhaps because it is such a nascent institution and it needs to build up a track record, the fund should be slightly more cautious, although not too cautious, because you do not want to crowd out private sector investment? Going straight away for a very risky approach could set…”

“Professor Lee, if I can come to you first. I was interested when you talked about the Canadian experience. They seem to have a much higher risk appetite. The National Wealth Fund has set a target to make a positive return for the Exchequer, and we have been discussing in Committee, in previous sittings, whether that is…”

“We asked other panellists earlier about the differences between British Business Bank and National Wealth Fund. Is it clear to you which one you should be going to? Do you think that the National Wealth Fund is the right fit for you?”

“We had quite a discussion about equity during the first panel. You do not fear that it would put off private investors? Do you think that it is a good way for the Government to make an investment?”

“I am thinking about how the National Wealth Fund could provide you with capital. There are lots of different options out there—we have talked about guarantees and equity stakes. Is there any preferred method for you, or are you open-minded?”

“Of course, the National Wealth Fund is also looking at meeting the Government’s own objectives. Do you think there will be alignment with what you are trying to do as well?”