My Lords, the British Business Bank’s investments are aligned with its strategic mandate, which is agreed with the Government and sets the bank’s overall strategic direction. It includes four objectives, the first of which is to support our most promising businesses in the industrial strategy priority sectors to scale and stay here. The bank is operationally independent and is responsible for undertaking its own due diligence and making investment decisions independently of government.
I thank my noble friend for that. The additional funding that has been given to the British Business Bank is welcome, but will it be encouraged to take higher risk stakes in some of our more innovative companies? Can we be assured that it has the expertise to make those critical judgments?
My noble friend is right to ask about mandate and risk appetite. This is the direction that the British Business Bank is taking, guided by its new strategic mandate. It is increasingly taking bigger bets to enable innovative British companies to scale and stay in the UK. The Government have provided a one-third uplift to the BBB’s financial capacity to help it to do so. It is able to leverage deep industry expertise across its investment activities, including both direct investments and investments made through funds.
My lords, as has been alluded to, as well as operating on a commercial basis the British Business Bank is expected to fill structural gaps in the capital market. As the sponsor of the British Business Bank, how does the Minister see its role in scaling up the UK defence supply chain? How will the British Business Bank help us to deliver the defence industry that we absolutely need?
The British Business Bank’s new strategic mandate explicitly talks about supporting businesses in the industrial strategy priority sectors, which, as noble Lords will know, includes defence. One of the things that we will be doing is looking at where the financing gap is, whether that is for R&D intensive or deep-tech companies, and at investing behind specialist fund managers or investment strategies that specifically support particular sectors. Using its mandate, and with the increased financial capacity, the British Business Bank will be able to support our defence industry supply chain here in the UK.
As was said earlier, we are monitoring the situation very carefully. It is unclear at present what exactly the long-term impact on energy prices and energy security will be. We are carefully looking at that. In the meantime, we have taken measures, including through the British energy-intensive industries scheme, to support energy prices for the most intensive users here in the UK.
My Lords, the development bank has some eye-catching five-year targets, including funding the creation of 370,000 new jobs and crowding in some £26 billion of additional private capital. I welcome that ambition, but, for perspective, can the Minister say how the bank has performed over the last five years, particularly in the areas of job creation and gross value added?
I may have to come back on those precise questions. The British Business Bank produces annual reports and has recently published an impact report which addresses some of the questions that the noble Lord specifically asks around job creation. That is an important aspect of its accountability for the funding it gets.
My Lords, the creative industries is a priority sector for the modern industrial strategy but not for the National Wealth Fund, as business structures seem to be better fitted to investment from the British Business Bank. Can my noble friend provide reassurance that the bank has the expertise and criteria that fit businesses such as those in the creative industries whose value lies in intellectual property, particularly while its protection is currently uncertain? In due course, can she share the comparative levels of investment made in the last two years in the key growth sectors?
My noble friend is right to mention consistency with the industrial strategy. It was only in October last year that the Government gave the British Business Bank a new mandate, including to align with the industrial strategy’s priority sectors and making available £4 billion to support those areas. In setting out the priority sectors, the Government have outlined ways in which they expect the British Business Bank to meet that—for example, using specialist fund managers or tailored approaches for the specific financing and other requirements of those subsectors. Creative UK has committed to providing a single gateway to help those creative industries that need access to finance to navigate between the various sources of finance available from the Government.
My Lords, I am a member of the Science and Technology Select Committee. We recently produced a report, Bleeding to Death, which I hope the Minister has seen, looking at the scale-up ecosystem of the UK and particularly the role of the British Business Bank. It concluded that we are in a doom loop. We do not have the scale or competitiveness, despite the extra investment in the British Business Bank. One of our recommendations was to bring different funds together, such as Innovate Finance, the National Wealth Fund and the British Business Bank. Have the Government looked at that recommendation?
As I said, we are helping businesses navigate the way—for example, through the business growth service, which enables businesses to access all the types of finance and support that they need, including UK export finance and other facilities with the Government. For the creative industries, Creative UK has committed to taking that role to help those businesses navigate the way through. On supporting businesses and the VC ecosystem, there is a lot of activity with the new investor pathways programme to provide £400 million of cornerstone investments into VC funds.
My Lords, to follow up on the question from the noble Lord, Lord Ranger, I have the privilege of chairing the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology, and we published a report recently on the financing and scaling of UK science and technology companies. To achieve real economic growth, our report recommended that the British Business Bank should work much more closely with the National Wealth Fund and Innovate UK, and that it should focus on priority sectors and companies in the direction set by the Government’s industrial strategy, which has already been referred to. It is good that the Minister has confirmed that that is the direction being taken. Is the British Business Bank actively implementing this in conjunction with the National Wealth Fund? Is it prioritising science and technology companies and the identified sectors of the industrial strategy?
The Government’s statement of strategic priorities had as its first objective to support our most promising businesses in the industrial strategy priority sectors, and the digital and technologies sector is among the industrial sectors identified. When the next annual report comes out in a year, we will be able to tell exactly how successful that has been. However, we have seen, in the light of some of the direct investments made, that the British Business Bank has taken seriously the mandate to invest directly and is pursuing that pathway.
My Lords, does the Minister agree with me how grateful we are to the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Whitchurch, for introducing the subject of the British Business Bank, particularly at such a key time? Does she agree that, rather than setting demographic targets for investment, we and the British Business Bank should be focusing on backing the most investable opportunities in order to maximise productivity growth and returns for the taxpayer?