UKSIF Welcomes Labour Party’s Commitment to Attracting Private Investment for UK’s Green Transition

UKSIF welcomes the Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ comments at the Labour Party’s 2024 Business Conference, reaffirming her party’s ambition to attract private investment at scale to finance the UK’s green transition.

Reeves committed to “governing [sic] as a pro-business party” and described financial services as “a national asset to be championed”, noting the ambition of Labour’s proposed National Wealth Fund to attract £3 of private capital for every £1 of public investment. She recognised the importance of regulatory reform in the wider economy, too, committing to a “once in a generation overhaul of our planning system”. Reeves also highlighted the potential for the City of London as the global hub for green finance, creating jobs in financial services across the UK while financing the world’s transition to net zero.

UKSIF Chief Executive, James Alexander, said: “The Shadow Chancellor rightly recognises the potential for private capital to finance a significant portion of UK’s transition to net zero, as well as the huge opportunity for UK leadership in sustainable finance around the world. The Labour Party should continue to focus on key regulatory reforms – as well as public funding where appropriate and sufficiently catalytic – to ensure the UK would compete with the US, EU and elsewhere in the global race for green investment, and the growth, jobs and rise in living standards which inevitably follow”.