“Speed is key”: Day Three at the Labour Party Conference

By Robert Hillier

Little orphan Annie sang “the sun will come out – tomorrow”, and that was also Sir Keir Starmer’s message to a very enthusiastic audience today. The PM will never be a great orator, but he’s definitely stronger when talking about actual policies.

The main event for South West tech today was a detailed rundown of the Pension Review with Emma Reynolds MP, who’s leading for the Treasury and the Department for Work and Pensions. Key for our sector is to unlock the 3 trillion pounds that is held by UK pension funds and get them investing in startups and scaleups.

The UK is awash with pension fund investment. Billions of pounds. But 97% is from overseas.

There is ten times more pension fund money invested in the UK from Canada than from the UK. This lack of UK capital is why, despite being a tech hotbed, we’re so far behind the US. There, pension fund money flows freely, lowering the risk profile for other investors.

Ms Reynolds laid out the four priorities of phase one of the review – driving scale and diversity, engineering a shift from cost to value, using Local Government Pensions better, and working out the best levers to drive this investment.

You’ll remember that AVIVA’s pension fund manager gave me short shrift on Monday when asked what could be done to use their billions better. “The government must de-risk it” was the answer. It looks like this won’t wash for long.

Speed is key. If the government wants to grow the economy in line with their mission statement, they’ll need to move fast.

With the South West lagging behind other regions in government investment, unlocking this funding will be essential.

We have to be part of that conversation and make the case for the South West powerhouse to finally be given some real fuel.

“Ensuring the South West’s voice is heard”: Day One at the Labour Party Conference

“Get seen and heard”: Day Two at the Labour Party Conference