What does the pledge mean? 

In its manifesto Labour said it would “establish a National Wealth Fund”. As we’ve explained elsewhere, this was achieved in October 2024.

The manifesto also said £7.3 billion of capital would be allocated to the fund over the course of the parliament, consisting of:

• £1.8 billion to upgrade ports and build supply chains across the UK
• £1.5 billion to new gigafactories
• £2.5 billion to rebuild the UK steel industry
• £1 billion to accelerate the deployment of carbon capture technologies
• £500 million to support the manufacturing of green hydrogen.

What progress has been made?

The government isn’t currently meeting this target, and we’ve rated this pledge as “In progress—appears off track”. 

In a policy paper published on 14 October 2024 announcing the formal establishment of the National Wealth Fund (NWF), the government confirmed that it would inherit the UK Investment Bank’s £22 billion of capital, and would also receive an additional £5.8 billion over the course of this parliament.

The government said the remaining £1.5 billion of the £7.3 billion set out in its manifesto would be “reserved to maintain flexibility in how the government can best deliver against its aims for the NWF”.

The Financial Times reported on 14 October that a Treasury official “said the missing £1.5bn would still be spent on ports, gigafactories, clean steel, carbon capture and green hydrogen—the five areas in which the NWF intends to invest—but through other ways”. 

This suggests that approximately one fifth of the money initially pledged to the fund may not in fact be assigned to it, though it will still be spent on infrastructure projects this parliament. 

A Treasury spokesperson told Full Fact: “All of the £7.3 billion will be spent on the five sectors in the manifesto; ports, gigafactories, steel, carbon capture and green hydrogen. We are simply making sure that the funding can best meet the needs of those sectors where the NWF’s might not be the best fit.”