Speeches by Yang.

“I would welcome you to visit our local tech and biotech companies in Reading.”

“I want to go back to the question about risk appetite. It seems to be something that many on this Committee are concerned about—that the National Wealth Fund will have a sufficient risk appetite, rather than simply delivering things the private sector could already deliver. How much of this comes down to institutional …”

“Is there a clear economic shield in the current policy for the National Wealth Fund, if it makes bad bets?”

“I want to go back to the theme that you raised, Mr Davidson, about the current layout being too complicated, with too many different inroads and not really a one-stop shop or portal that could make things simpler. From our panel of academics earlier, we heard about the importance of the National Wealth Fund institution…”

“I have a few questions on the theme of natural capital. One of the top questions I get when I go to primary school assemblies is about what the Government are doing to preserve nature. I also hear that from my constituents, who live by, walk along and enjoy the Thames and its various waterways. Mr Spiers, could you bre…”

“For listeners who are not familiar with the terms, Mr Spiers, could you break down by what you mean by natural capital and nature markets? Could you give some examples of tangible benefits that the National Wealth Fund could create by investing in those areas?”

“How would you like to see the National Wealth Fund take those issues into account?”

“One last question on this theme. Mr Spiers, you mentioned that, on the one hand, there is the negative impact—the unintended consequences—of other National Wealth Fund activity on nature. The conversation on natural capital investments that are more beneficial is about investing in nature services can support the overa…”

“I have some questions about the winners and losers of the spending review. The IFS predicted that the biggest winners would be health and defence. Ms Miller, in terms of the overall spread of winners and losers, are there any surprises when it comes to your analysis?”

“When you look at the landscape from the perspective of unmet needs, rather than just in cash terms, in which Departments and areas do you see the biggest gaps?”

“I know that SEND pressure very well: one of my local councils is Woking borough council, which is in the statutory override situation you described. The Local Government Association has mentioned that the IFS’s projection of spending power for councils relies on quite large increases in council tax over this Parliament…”

“Thank you very much. Dr Tetlow, we have just heard Ms Miller describe the unmet needs gap. Do you want to highlight any areas where you feel, from the perspective of residents and service users, there will be large gaps? What might that feel like over the next few years of the Parliament?”

“I have a couple of quick questions on the healthcare productivity issues that my colleague Bobby Dean brought up. The first is about the causes of this quite dramatic decrease in health sector productivity, which is about a fifth lower than pre-covid. How much of this can we put down to the lack of labour-augmenting ca…”

“I see the investment constraints in my local hospital—the Royal Berkshire hospital—which definitely needs to be rebuilt very soon. I have a statistical question for you, Dr Tetlow, in your capacity as an ONS fellow. We had Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England, before us a few months ago, and we discussed …”

“Dr Jeevun Sandher mentioned the long-run impacts of cutting back preventive services, and Dr Tetlow, you mentioned when you answered my first question that there is also risk in this current spending review that, for example, non-statutory functions of councils such as youth clubs, parent groups and so on are cut back …”

“Is there evidence of an impact on the efficacy of Government spending if there has been that shift from preventive to the crisis response?”

“I have a question about the difference, when spending on something like R&D and innovation, between departmental spending and the spending of this arm’s length body, the National Wealth Fund, which is still broadly in line with the Government’s strategic aims. Does anyone on the panel want to speak to the important dif…”

“Mr Kumar spoke about there still being a gap in financing, despite the capitalisation of the National Wealth Fund, at just under £30 billion, for the carbon transition and the other challenges that our economy faces. Does the panel have any advice for increasing the fund’s leverage ratio without having to increase the …”

“So you are saying that it is not just about the amount of capital being deployed but about the management and whether they are in the community and speaking to investors? It is really about the running of the bank and the service it provides outside of investment.”

“I would welcome you to visit our local tech and biotech companies in Reading.”