\u2022 Business live: follow for the latest news on companies, markets and the economy<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n His comments follow criticism from John Flint, the outgoing boss of the National Wealth Fund, that attempts to boost UK growth and productivity are being undermined by a risk-averse finance industry.<\/p>\n The British Business Bank, established in 2014 to improve the flow of finance to private companies, has been given a significantly enhanced role<\/a> following the spending review and industrial strategy, with the government committing \u00a36.6 billion of new capital to the organisation last month. <\/p>\n Its total firepower stands at \u00a325.6 billion, and its annual investments are expected to grow by two thirds, to \u00a32.5 billion a year, as part of a government target to deliver the \u201cUK\u2019s first trillion-dollar technology business\u201d.<\/p>\n The agency provides wholesale finance to equity and debt providers but can also invest up to \u00a360 million directly in individual companies, up from \u00a315 million. <\/p>\n Taylor said the bank\u2019s new British Growth Partnership, an investment vehicle seeking to raise hundreds of millions of pounds from UK pension funds and other institutions to back British venture capital, is on track to make its first investment this year.<\/p>\n John Flint of the National Wealth Fund says attempts to boost UK growth are being undermined by a risk-averse finance industry<\/p>\n SONJA HORSMAN FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n Aegon UK, NatWest Cushon and London CIV, a grouping of local government pension schemes, have expressed interest in backing the scheme, and Taylor said a number of other pension investors were in talks over doing so. <\/p>\n He said this showed there was a growing appreciation of a \u201cgoldmine of opportunity which is currently being more appreciated by overseas investors than domestic\u201d.<\/p>\n The move to encourage more pension investment in UK assets has been contentious<\/a>,<\/a> with critics saying fund managers should focus on the best returns for savers rather than national economic aims.<\/p>\n Taylor, formerly boss of UK Export Finance, the government\u2019s export credit agency, said companies being able to access more UK investment would create a \u201cvirtuous circle\u201d whereby if \u201cgreat opportunities get funded in the UK, more opportunities will come to the UK to get funded\u201d.<\/p>\n He said research suggested that UK companies raised about a third to a half of what their US equivalents raised \u201cat pretty much every stage of development\u201d. That was one of the reasons promising UK companies were often acquired by overseas investors before they had reached their potential.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need a UK counterbalance to overseas capital in order to retain these companies in the UK,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The bank is also launching a new \u00a34 billion fund to invest in the eight \u201cgrowth-driving\u201d sectors identified by the government as part of the industrial strategy. It is hoped the fund will attract \u00a312 billion of private capital alongside it. <\/p>\n Taylor \u2014 who was paid \u00a3356,400 in the year to March 2024, although that could rise to more than \u00a3480,000 if core performance targets are met \u2014 said he was mindful of the risk of \u201ca tidal wave\u201d of capital flooding the venture market. Critics point to the difficulties private equity groups are having in exiting past investments amid scepticism about valuations.<\/p>\n During talks over expansion of the bank\u2019s work, Taylor said \u201cministers challenged us as to whether we could do more\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere we have landed is a good place \u2026 where we will be crowding [private] money in rather than crowding money out,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n The agency now has a permanent capital base, meaning it has greater flexibility to reinvest returns rather than return them to the government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The boss of the state economic development agency has warned British pension funds not to overlook the \u201cgoldmine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3093],"tags":[51,474,2499,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-244687","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-personal-finance","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114810751821443720","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Portrait](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/\/27aee477-5143-4062-8614-1535e7cdf85e.jpg\")
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