Labour govt scraps UK state bank merger

Risk capital: People walking at the London financial district. Reeves and Starmer have warned of tough decisions ahead of the budget on Oct 30 and asked departments to find at least US$3.9bil of savings. — Reuters

LONDON: The UK’s new Labour government has slashed the amount of taxpayer funds it plans to give its new National Wealth Fund (NWF) by a fifth and scrapped a proposed merger between two state investment agencies as its ambitions collide with the country’s tough financial realities.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is now planning to allocate just £5.8bil of public money to the fund – less than the £7.3bil she previously planned to set aside for the effort.