Select committee: Treasury Committee
Conclusion 4
12th Report - National Wealth Fund
Published 28 Oct 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Treasury Committee National Wealth Fund All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The NWF is not a conventional sovereign wealth fund that invests wealth generated from natural resources to benefit future generations. Therefore its name, the National Wealth Fund, could be misleading. The NWF is financed by the Government from taxation and borrowing, which means that its investments are likely to attract public, political and media scrutiny and that the Government may face pressure to privatise it. Despite those challenges, the success of the NWF’s forerunner, the Green Investment Bank, in stimulating the offshore wind market while generating returns provides 20 a reason for cautious optimism that the NWF will deliver its investment priorities in relation to clean energy. However, the current NWF’s size could limit its strategic impact on economic growth. (Conclusion, Paragraph 31)
From: Treasury Committee, 12th Report - National Wealth Fund (HC 806), 28 October 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 15 January 2026 (deadline 28 December 2025).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government's response says it agrees with the Committee on strategy and reporting, alignment with government strategies and operational independence, and has "no current plans" to let the National Wealth Fund borrow directly from private markets.
- On Recommendation 1, the government "agrees" and says a new Strategic Plan will be published in January 2026, to include performance metrics, risk appetite, use of financial instruments, evaluation processes and its approach to crowding out. It will share the plan with the Committee on publication.
- On Recommendation 3, the government "strongly agrees" that public financial institutions must work together. It says its review of the landscape "concluded the landscape is well-positioned to deliver government priorities", after examining the merits of merging institutions.
- On Recommendation 5, the government "strongly agrees" the NWF must remain operationally independent. HM Treasury will issue strategic steers "judiciously", with updates "only in exceptional circumstances" and published online.
- On Recommendation 6, it states it has "no current plans" to enable direct market borrowing, saying the NWF has "sufficient unused capital" for this Parliament. Once existing capacity is exhausted, HM Treasury "will assess" the most value-for-money approach to further capitalisation.