Keen interest UK state bank gets £10bn boost to lead industrial revival strategy

Louis Taylor is caught between two eras. The chief executive of the British Business Bank (BBB) has spent much of his tenure attempting to revive the state-owned lender's image after a battering from the fraud-hit pandemic loan scheme, and will soon have to defend its actions at the Covid inquiry.

- Kalyeena Makortoff

But until then, Taylor can focus on the BBB's gleefully landed fresh £10bn mandate linked to the industrial strategy Labour hopes will boost a flagging economy. As part of Rachel Reeves's spending review, Taylor pitched to beef up its operations through investment plans aimed at growing start-ups and British businesses.

"There was a menu of options that we gave to ministers," Taylor said. "They ordered pretty much the whole menu."

With its funding capacity increased to £25.6bn from about £15.6bn, Taylor's team has a souped-up range of investment schemes, mainly aimed at eight key sectors that ministers believe have the highest potential to drive economic growth over the next decade: advanced manufacturing, creative industries, life sciences, clean energy, defence, digital and tech firms including artificial intelligence and financial and professional services.

The BBB will now expand regional investment programmes aimed at finding promising businesses outside London, hunt for specialist fund managers to deploy its cash, and launch a direct investment programme through which it will take stakes of up to £60m in individual companies.