Economy: Government Policies

Lord Barnett Excerpts

Wednesday 7th December 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, our exporters are leading the growth in this country and indeed, although it is early days, there are some signs from the figures over the past 18 months that at last, after a decade of a declining share of world trade, the UK’s share is increasing. It is a modest increase and it is early days but our exporters are performing very strongly.

[Lord Barnett]

I would like to welcome one part of the Statement from the Chancellor, when he said that he had negotiated £20 billion of funds from pension funds for infrastructure investment. That is very welcome. However, could the noble Lord tell us how exactly it is to be financed with the pension funds? Is it a PFI deal, or what rate of interest are they going to be paid?

[Lord Sassoon]

I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Barnett, for welcoming this important initiative. In fact it is a case of the pension funds coming to us. That particular group of pension funds has £800 billion under management. So it will be funds that they already have under management, and they wish to allocate a greater share to the infrastructure sector. It does not hit the public sector in any way.