Speeches by McEvoy.

“I have heard that quite a lot. That means that the company becomes more and more owned by a separate country, even though it was made here. What is the difference between those American investors and our British investment landscape?”

“That is interesting. In terms of them not having enough money, in your sector you have a lot of people competing for this public investment. We hear about pipeline, that there is not enough to invest in in the UK, and that our pension funds are only 3% invested in the UK—all these problems. Do you think that in the bio…”

“On that point, Dr Turner, obviously that is in contrast with the previous panel’s experience and understanding of the different PuFins. Could you elaborate on some of your members’ experiences with those different institutions? How have they found the feedback loop? There are the big Green Book reforms about how the Tr…”

“It’s a PuFin.”

“Whose role is that?”

“Excellent. Mr Earl, we heard the recent Government announcement about £500 million going into hydrogen, which must have been music to your ears. What needs to follow that in order to get money crowded in and to support businesses themselves to be able to invest? A lot of this is about the Government setting a priority …”

“That is really interesting. We seem to be really good at these globally leading technology innovations, but find a bit of a gap in the next stage towards getting it to be hugely commercially viable. We heard from the last panel that support from the National Wealth Fund is not always about the amount of money; it is al…”

“Thank you for sharing that very personal story, Mr Thomas. I cannot imagine how difficult it was for you, leading that. Do you think there was any space for the state to step in with these new PuFIns—as we have heard they are called? Could you outline your experience so far of engaging with the different PuFIns that ar…”

“It sounds like what you guys need is an industrial strategy.”

“It could be within the strategic priority sectors of the industrial strategy. But you think it could potentially do it. I suppose an alternative model would be to boost the coffers of other institutions.”

“There is a big gap in that bit of funding, though. Would the National Wealth Fund would be an appropriate place to give that sort of funding, or should that come from a whole different PuFIn?”

“When they invest, they have a high minimum level of investment, so there is a gap. You could go to the British Business Bank instead, but is the British Business Bank going to give the same credibility to private investors to crowd in on the back of a concept? Is there a gap? When we see how successful the National Wea…”

“No, I mean for the starting deal.”

“I have a follow-up question on Bobby Dean’s point about PuFIns—we are enjoying that acronym quite a lot. Regarding the gap for scaling up and spin-outs, we hear all the time from businesses that they have an amazing concept but they cannot get scale-up funding. Innovate UK obviously does some of that work, and there ar…”

“In the international comparators, are there some funds that are more risky and work well? How does it work internationally in terms of the risk appetite?”

“Finally, on the international comparators and how you have seen it work before: what is their risk appetite compared to ours? I am interested to know how much public money is considered an acceptable amount for projects that do not make it all the way, in the examples you have given where these funds are working well. …”

“This is quite niche. The Green Book reforms in the spending review are how we spend the Treasury’s money and how decisions get made. These reforms are hopefully going to support more place-based investment. Do you think that, given the huge strategic scope that the National Wealth Fund already has in what it has to del…”

“The Chancellor said in the same letter on 19 March that she is increasing the economic capital limit from £4.5 billion to £7 billion to support more high-risk investment and the derisking of potential growth-enhancing projects. Mr Kumar, do you have any views on the disconnect between that and what is happening on the …”

“Mr Narayanan, does the National Wealth Fund have the right risk appetite? How much should it be taking risks early on? I know we have said about being patient—having this patient capital—but some of the projects are champing at the bit. They have got proof of concept, but they cannot get the private investment. How muc…”

“Just to pick up on a couple of the points we have heard before, the Chancellor wrote to the CEO of the National Wealth Fund on 19 March, setting out some strategic priorities. On the first strategic objective, it specifically mentions building stronger relationships with regional, local and devolved authorities, which …”