Macquarie set to pledge £20bn new UK investment at Labour summit
Australian infrastructure giant Macquarie is planning £20bn of new investment in the UK in a reprieve for Keir Starmer ahead of Labour’s flagship investment summit.
Macquarie’s five-year plan, due to be announced at Monday’s event, is set to pump cash into the UK’s energy, water, transport and waste sectors, alongside the construction of new data centres.
It is planning to invest in the 2,800-acre Cottam solar farm project in Lincolnshire, which energy secretary Ed Miliband gave the green light to last month. The farm is expected to generate enough clean energy to power 180,000 homes.
Macquarie has also earmarked £220m for 650 electric vehicle fast-charging points at sites operated by the Roadchef motorway services firm it owns. Roadchef expects that investment to ensure it has enough supply until 2030.
“It’s not lost on me… For a long time, we have used the words ‘no comment’. We don’t always tell our story as cleanly [or] succinctly as maybe we could,” Martin Bradley, European and Middle East head of infrastructure at Macquarie Asset Management, told The Sunday Times.
“Across the UK, we are spade in hand, digging and developing.”
Macquarie’s plans offer a win to Starmer and chancellor Rachel Reeves after a row with transport secretary Louise Haigh reportedly led P&O Ferries owner DP World to shelve a £1bn investment pledge it had planned to make at Labour’s summit.
DP World confirmed on Saturday that it would in fact attend the summit, following discussions with the government.
Starmer rebuked Haigh for claiming P&O was a “rogue operator” for suddenly firing 800 British workers and replacing them with cheaper, mostly overseas, agency staff in 2022.
Macquarie’s reputation in the UK has taken a hit in recent times thanks to its ownership of Thames Water, which is facing the prospect of temporary nationalisation as it struggles under a massive debt pile.
The firm bought a 48 per cent stake in Britain’s largest water company in 2006 and took out £879m in dividends before selling out in 2017. During this period, Thames Water’s debts surged to £11bn from £6bn.
Macquarie has stressed that under its ownership, Thames Water invested 2.5 times more per customer than when it was in public hands.
On Monday, Macquarie’s chief executive, Shemara Wikramanayake, will participate in a panel discussing decarbonisation of the energy sector.
She will be joined by Ofgem boss Jonathan Brearley, National Grid chair Paula Rosput Reynolds, and Octopus Energy founder Greg Jackson.
Macquarie has invested £60bn in the UK since 1999 and employs some 35,000 people across the assets it owns.