Deal-hungry Australian superannuation funds have embarked on a power play with UK counterparts to bankroll Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s green energy agenda. Industry super funds Aware, HESTA, Hostplus, Rest and Cbus have put their name to ambitious calls for changes to UK regulation, public sector investment and accounting policies to reduce barriers to investment. Ahead of meetings with UK officials in Westminster on Wednesday, Australian and UK retirement savings players pushed for the Brexit bleeder to improve its integration with European Union energy markets and allow for tariff-fee trading.
The Australians are keen to get momentum into their UK ambitions, as revealed last November when super investment manager IFM Investors signed a memorandum of understanding with the former Tory government mooting £10b of investment by 2027. The six Australian funds, five UK counterparts and related industry groups now argue a raft of policy tweaks are needed before they can confidently bankroll the ambitious clean power agenda of the new Labour government. The groups claim it could cost upwards of £10bn each year to double onshore wind generation, triple solar power and quadruple offshore wind power by 2030.
Neale Prior Neale Prior The 11 funds and the UK’s Pension and Lifetime Savings Association on Wednesday endorsed a report by Australian super fund-owned manager IFM Investors ahead of the Westminster meetings. Boasting more £1.7 trillion ($3.
3tr) under management, the rep.