British Business Bank

Lord Hunt of Wirral Excerpts

Monday 9th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

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.

[Lord Hunt of Wirral (Con)]

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?

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

I could not agree more with the noble Lord’s first point: my noble friend has given us a good opportunity to talk about this important institution. The new mission set by the British Business Bank is to drive economic growth by helping smaller businesses to get the finance they need to start, scale and stay in the UK. That is how we will grow a more productive economy here in the United Kingdom.