Labour targets private capital with infra council

The UK’s shadow chancellor has held the first meeting of the Labour Party’s British Infrastructure Council, bringing together a range of investors and bankers to look at new ways of delivering infrastructure.

British Infrastructure Council inaugural meeting (Credit: Labour Party)

Rachel Reeves met with chief executives and representatives of several banks, including HSBC, Lloyds, M&G, BlackRock and Santander.

“Under the right conditions, there are significant pools of private capital available to finance investment in critical national infrastructure,” Reeves said.

The discussions focused on the way in which innovative financing models could be developed to help increase infrastructure investment and delivery, in particular to help create the projects needed to deliver the energy transition.

“Our new British Infrastructure Council will help unlock private investment for national infrastructure projects from clean energy to transport,” Reeves added.

Labour has been keen to position itself as a natural friend of business and investment, with leader Sir Keir Starmer having pledged on a number of times to work “hand in glove” with the private sector to deliver a range of investment, including infrastructure.