How we’re building our approach to place in the National Wealth Fund – join the conversation

Few concepts are as widely used – or as loosely defined – as place. In almost every conversation about growth, the clean energy transition or economic security, place features prominently. For the National Wealth Fund, translating place-based investment into an approach that genuinely changes outcomes is a real opportunity, albeit not straightforward.

As a principal investor and policy bank for the UK Government, we bring together the strengths of the public and private sectors to unlock the UK’s future. Many of our investments are national in nature and will benefit large parts of the country. However, we have also been building our approach to how we support specific places across the UK through our investments and expert advice as part of our new five‑year strategy. Whilst we have clarity on our overall ambition, the mechanics of how we deliver are still evolving. This article sets out three key question we are working on:

• To what extent should place influence our investment decisions?
• What should we do next to develop our Regional Project Accelerator (our overall approach to supporting local and regional government)?
• What does success look like for our approach to place, working alongside other public financial institutions?

We think there is value in answering these questions in conversation with our partners across the private and public sector because they have insights that will help us get to the best possible answers. We have therefore set out below how we are currently thinking about place and what we have learned so far, before returning to these questions. We encourage you to join the conversation by attending our UKREiiF lunchtime session on Wednesday 20 May - or any of our other sessions on the programme - whilst you can also provide your views online via the link at the bottom of this piece. Looking forward, we will draw on the insights we gather at REiiF as we refine the next phase of the Regional Project Accelerator - our overall approach to supporting local and regional government - and our investment pipeline, and update on our approach in the 2026 Impact Report.

Place in our strategy

Accelerating place-based investment across the UK is one of three, mutually reinforcing core ambitions in the National Wealth Fund’s five‑year strategy, alongside unlocking clean energy growth opportunities and strengthening sovereign and strategic capabilities.

Our starting point is that place complements the way we invest in sectors. Place shapes risk, delivery, impact and sequencing – whether in relation to skills availability, planning capacity, grid constraints, supply chains, or local political leadership. Understanding place is vital to understanding how investments can succeed.

This thinking aligns closely with the Government’s approach to place, which emphasises the need to move beyond short‑term, centralised interventions and instead back long‑term, place‑based growth. For the National Wealth Fund, that means investing in a way that catalyses local economies and priorities, not just individual projects.

What we’ve done so far

Over the last five years, we have delivered nearly eighty investments across the UK. From tin mines in Cornwall to port infrastructure near Inverness and broadband in Northern Ireland, we’re investing for growth and clean energy in every region. Our investments to date will support or create more than 70,000 jobs. Alongside this, we are moving to commit our capital in targeted place-based ways. In Greater Manchester, for example, we recently announced an ambition to invest up to £500 million through the GMCA Good Growth Fund, demonstrating what can be achieved in a region with exceptional institutional capacity.

We have delivered more than 70 local advisory engagements and lent more than £1 billion to local government-led projects across the UK, from heat networks in the West Midlands to a Community Wind Farm in the Orkneys. Last year, we launched the Regional Project Accelerator (RPA) - our approach to supporting local and regional government - which responded directly to what we heard from places: strong pipelines depend as much on institutional capacity and early-stage development as on access to capital. As part of this, we have four Strategic Partnerships where we are making a longer-term commitment to deepen existing relationships to unlock growth - with Glasgow City Region, West Yorkshire Combined Authority, West Midlands Combined Authority and Greater Manchester Combined Authority. We are also supporting a focussed number of regionally significant projects across the UK via project advisory support and by offering low cost, flexible lending.

Finally, we have taken steps to strengthen our institutional presence. The appointment of Directors to lead our investment activity in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland reflects the fact that long‑term, place‑based investment depends on sustained relationships and local presence. The Directors lead offices in each of the three nations and act as key ambassadors with the devolved governments and other public and private stakeholders within their geographies.

What’s working well

Looking across our portfolio, we have laid strong foundations for making a difference within places. For each investment, we have assessed the economic opportunity for places and communities, tracking the impact of our investments on growth, jobs and local incomes over time. 

As our pipeline develops and we deploy our remaining £18 billion of capital, there will be opportunities to reinforce our existing activity within places, further deepening capital investment, productivity and wider economic benefits for local communities.

We know that across the country, places have well established, evidence-based strategies for growth, building on sectoral strengths from advanced manufacturing to clean energy, and clear investment priorities across regeneration, transport, housing and public service infrastructure.

This is increasingly accompanied by stronger institutional capacity, with experienced investment teams and mature governance arrangements. In many places, there is an ambition for coherent and long‑term sequencing to bring forward connected portfolios of projects at scale, amplifying impact and delivering more than the sum of each individual part.

What we’re still learning

We know that many places face challenges in converting vision and strategy into projects and that not all projects will succeed. Commercial, financial or delivery capability, as well as differing political and investment cycles, are often a bottleneck to progress. There are also different levels of maturity across places. Government is taking steps to address this and make devolution the default way that the UK is governed, including via integrated settlements and the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act. We want to work alongside Government to support this and facilitate growth across all four nations.

As we set out at the start, three questions around our place ambition remain open which deserve collective debate to reach better answers:

To what extent should place influence our investment decisions?

Our strategy identifies 25 sectors - from innovative technologies to strategic infrastructure - where we will actively pursue opportunities for private investments and support regionally significant projects. We are set up to try to find the best investment opportunities in these sectors - across the UK that deliver our mandate to unlock long-term economic growth and accelerate the transition to clean energy. We like this approach and welcome your views as to whether there is a better or complementary one.

What should we do next to develop our Regional Project Accelerator?

Subject to the progress and impact of the four Strategic Partnerships, our ambition is to expand these to other Mayoral Strategic Authorities and City Regions. We also want to continue prioritising Regionally Significant Projects that demonstrate deliverability, innovation, impact, and replicability. We therefore need to consider what the best opportunities are to expand and develop our Strategic Partnerships and Regionally Significant Project models, in a way that supports local and national priorities and has the greatest impact on growth. We think building out our strategic partnerships with combined and strategic authorities and complementing these with large deliverable projects with other Public Financial institutions across the UK that will drive local growth is a sensible path; what are your views?

What does success look like for our approach to place, working alongside other public financial institutions?

We expect that, by 2050, our portfolio will create or support more than 200,000 jobs and support productivity and growth across the UK. Beyond this, we want to be clear on what other real world impacts we can deliver for people across the UK, where, and how, including the role of other public financial institutions across the UK. We recognise that the impact of our investments in local areas goes beyond our stated metrics of finance, jobs and emissions and we are keen to understand the impact of our projects on local communities in more detail.

An open invitation

If you have views on these questions, we want to hear from you. If you have cracked some of the problems we are still grappling with, tell us how. And if you think our thinking is wrong, challenge it. We encourage you to join the conversation by attending our UKREiiF lunchtime session on Wednesday 20th or any of our other sessions on the programme below. Alternatively, you can share your thoughts via this form.

The National Wealth Fund’s approach to place is still evolving. But we are clear on one thing: getting place right is central to our mission.

National Wealth Fund UKREiiF sessions:

Tuesday 19th May – Vera Suite, Royal Armouries, Leeds

• Come and meet the National Wealth Fund – Coffee, cake and conversation – 10am to 11.30am
• [INIVITE-ONLY] From Plan to Place: How the National Wealth Fund is Accelerating Regional Projects – 12pm to 1.30pm
• Ports as Powerhouses: Unlocking Growth, Clean Energy and Place – 2pm to 3pm

Wednesday 20th May – Vera Suite, Royal Armouries, Leeds

• Powering Places: Transforming Regional Growth Through National Wealth Fund Strategic Partnerships – 10am to 11am
• How we’re building our approach to place in the National Wealth Fund – join the conversation – 12pm to 1pm
• Unlocking Place-Based Investment: The Players, the Pipeline, the Products – 2pm to 3pm

Thursday 21st May - Vera Suite, Royal Armouries, Leeds

Open drop-in session – all day