Andy Burnham's government has announced plans to spearhead a new £1bn fund designed to inject capital from some of the UK's largest pension schemes into emerging start-up companies. The initiative, named the UK Scale-up Fund, aims to bolster the growth of innovative businesses, particularly within the technology and life sciences sectors, creating new jobs and driving economic expansion across the country.
Key pension providers, including Nest (the government-established workplace scheme), Railpen, Border to Coast, and Local Pensions Partnership Investments (LPPI), are reportedly backing this significant government-led investment vehicle. The British Business Bank and the Office for Investment, a body operating within the Treasury, will also provide financial and operational support for the fund. The government is now in the process of appointing a manager to oversee the proposed fund's operations and investment strategy.
The move comes as part of a broader government industrial strategy, which identifies specific sectors as crucial drivers of future national growth. Andy Burnham stated that the fund would help to “reindustrialise Britain and create the jobs of the future.” Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds echoed this sentiment, highlighting that the ambition of major pension providers to support the next generation of British success stories represents a vital vote of confidence in UK innovation. He added that by investing in these companies, pension savers could also share in their long-term success.
The creation of the UK Scale-up Fund addresses a persistent challenge for British firms, which have historically struggled to secure sufficient domestic capital for expansion, often necessitating a reliance on American and European investors. Industry leaders, including Rene Hass of Arm, have previously criticised a perceived lack of risk-taking within the UK investment landscape. Economists, such as former Bank of England deputy governor Andy Haldane, have also advocated for policies that encourage domestic investment.
This initiative also seeks to reverse a long-term trend where the proportion of domestic assets held by UK pension funds has significantly declined. Over the past three decades, the allocation to UK shares by these funds has fallen from approximately half to under five per cent. Previous Chancellors, Jeremy Hunt and Rachel Reeves, had also engaged with pension funds to encourage greater investment in private assets and UK-based equities over the last three years, although the Labour government had previously faced challenges when seeking powers to mandate such investments, with those powers capped under a 2025 agreement.