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The State of Integrated Care Systems: Finances
The State of Integrated Care Systems: Finances

Archive for the ‘Private Equity’ Category

Mission Zero: Chris Skidmore’s independent review and America’s Inflation Reduction Act

America’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is one of several major pieces of legislation underpinning the bold new economic agenda of the Biden administration. Its name is misleading as it will have little impact on US inflation but is the combination of a domestic industrial policy and an ambitious strategy for net zero, offering $369 billion in investment and tax breaks over the next ten years.

Across the pond, the IRA has been sharply criticised by UK and European politicians and policy wonks due to strict “made in USA” rules that would disqualify European based companies from generous tax breaks and lucrative investment opportunities. UK Trade Secretary, Kemi Badenoch described the legislation as protectionist, stating “it is onshoring in a way that could actually create problems with the supply chains for everybody else.” It risks incentivising companies to re-locate to North America and diverting investment away from the UK and Europe.

Or to quote the Chair of the UK’s Energy Digitalisation Taskforce, Laura Sandys CBE, “the IRA is a game changer… big investors are saying ‘US first, Europe second, Asia third and if you’ve got any spare peanuts at the end of it maybe you can look at the UK.’”

As the US Treasury and Department of Energy are expected to publish IRA guidance in March, UK and EU energy ministers are haggling with their American counterparts to secure concessions and minimise the risks to their respective energy markets and economies. For UK investors, it also prompts questions about the state of play closer to home, with the Conservative Government’s approach putting the UK at risk of falling behind in the global race to maximise the growth potential arising from net zero.

Green leadership in the UK

To rephrase an idiom, the Government’s approach could be described as ‘all wind but no power’. Whilst the UK’s net zero ambitions are well rehearsed by politicians and have been written into law, the policies and funding fail to match the rhetoric. This has created a vacuum which the Labour Party is filling with its Green Prosperity Plan and the promise of £28 billion annually for capital spending on projects designed to tackle climate change.

The Government will need to move quickly for two reasons. Firstly, the High Court ruled in July 2022 that ministers need to explain and substantiate how they plan to deliver on the Government’s Net Zero target by April 2023 following a successful judicial review by climate change campaign groups.

The Court-ordered report is likely to be wrapped up with Government’s response to the independent review of net zero, published in January 2023 and chaired by former energy minister, Chris Skidmore OBE. Skidmore’s 340-page review contains 129 policy recommendations that present the economic case for net zero as “the growth opportunity of the 21st century”.

Secondly, as highlighted by Skidmore’s review, many of the UK’s competitor economies have already made bold and ambitious interventions. Both the USA’s IRA and the EU’s €250 billion Green Deal Industrial Plan provide significant funding and the long-term policy certainty that is mission critical to securing private sector investment in their respective economies. If UK investors are left out in the cold, the UK risks not only losing out on new opportunities, but also current economic activity moving away.

What next for investors?

UK investors can expect the Government to act imminently. Ministers are acutely aware of the competition concerns arising from the USA’s IRA and will want to exploit the UK’s pre-existing market strengths. While the UK cannot compete with the sheer industrial capacity of North America, it is likely ministers will seek to capitalise on the UK’s strong science base and highly specialised expertise in both clean technologies and green finance.

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Gold in the Garbage: Private Equity turns to waste

The waste sector is making headlines in the private equity world as investors are searching the rubbish for opportunities. Admittedly, it is not the most glamorous of industries, but there is good reason for the spiked interest in waste and recycling and it is likely to gain traction in the coming years.

The £1.4 billion bid for waste management company, Biffa, is the latest move in the rush of investment into waste and recycling. This follows moves by KKR to buy Viridor (waste management), Macquarie to buy Beauparc (recycling services) and Ancala to acquire Augean (hazardous waste management). Reconomy (waste broker) was acquired by EMK Capital in 2017 and has since embarked on an aggressive expansion strategy to become one of the sector’s biggest operators.

The pandemic has accelerated this trend, increasing the attractiveness of critical infrastructure and shining a light on its stability in uncertain times. Since then, the regulatory and political direction of travel towards the circular economy has boosted investment appetite.

The government wants us to recycle more, especially as rates have recently plateaued after years of rapid growth. It also wants to tackle the wave of plastic being sent abroad for ‘recycling’, which is landing atop toxic piles of waste in poorly regulated countries. To this end, plans include standardizing waste collections, introducing a deposit scheme to boost recycling of plastic bottles, and imposing ‘polluter pays’ rules that will force packaging makers to incorporate the cost of recycling into their products. According to analysts, the industry will have to invest up to £10 billion to fund the infrastructure needed to meet these commitments. Jacob Hayler, director of the Environmental Services Association, said “it definitely feels like a very dynamic, exciting growth area at the moment, with plenty of opportunity to invest.”

The bio-boom

Companies with a strong portfolio of recycling or energy from waste (EfW) infrastructure are experiencing high profit margins and levels of growth, proving lucrative for private equity backers. The current energy crisis is favouring the domestic supply of energy and the government’s focus on a windfall tax for large oil companies has allowed many EfW plant operators to reap the rewards of higher prices. Sector specialists have explained that many of these plants were modelled on an expected power price of approximately £60 MWh, but current revenues are about £200 MWh, so income has tripled, turning biomass and EfW plants into green cash cows. As a result, large investment firms specializing in infrastructure are circling such projects. For instance, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners has active investments in SSE’s Slough Multifuel project and is part of a joint venture with FCC Environment for the Lostock EfW plant.

The demand for recycled materials is also growing. London-based PE firm, Exponent, formed the wood recycling and biomass supply specialist, Enva, after acquiring DCC Environmental. Following an acquisition spree, it is now one of the largest wood recycling firms in the UK and supplies a large amount of recycled material to biomass plants which has proved highly lucrative. The site also turns waste into materials for the panel board industry and animal bedding products, the latter for which it won the Recycling & Waste Management Circular Economy Award in 2019.

The green rush

Investors’ interest in waste management is underpinned by the increasing prioritization of ESG in investment decisions, and the swelling of ESG funds globally. Markets such as gas, electricity and water are also more mature and therefore harder to penetrate. The fact that there are only a few large players in the waste space, of which relatively few are listed opportunities, only adds to the excitement. That being said, the market is becoming more sophisticated. Biffa has been silently snapping up smaller players, spending £260 million on 25 deals since 2016. Further consolidation is likely to gather pace as regulations are tightened and operators try to scale up to mitigate supply chain issues; doing so helps reduce costs and carbon footprints.

Investors should be mindful that waste management contracts tend to be short term and volatile, unlike in wind power where long contract terms have helped fuel a construction boost. The sector is also not immune from the cost-of-living crisis, as recessions tend to see households produce less waste. Nevertheless, the political climate is such that investors should be excited about waste management assets that can offer steady returns and can demonstrate green credentials.

To discuss the current policy and regulatory environment for waste, EfW and recycling issues in more detail please email Thea Southwell Reeves on theasouthwellreeves@wacomms.co.uk.

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The Government’s Food Strategy: a fork in the road

In the build up to the Government Food Strategy, the Prime Minister promised bold action to address the problems in the UK’s food system. This week, health and sustainability campaigners have voiced their disappointment that not all of Henry Dimbleby’s recommendations are being adopted, including the proposed salt and sugar tax.

Seemingly ‘hollowed out’, the publication is seen by many in the agri-food sector as a holding response for a serious long-term strategy that has been conditioned by Conservative backbenchers who the Prime Minister considers key to his survival. In other words, a tactical short-term response to a set of political pressures. Published against a backdrop of the cost-of-living crisis, the effects of the war in Ukraine, and recent party politics, the Food Strategy represents a notable departure from long-term priorities such as environmental sustainability and tackling obesity. Instead, the Strategy focuses on technology and innovation, job creation, productivity. In short, the government sees growth in the UK’s agri-food sector as the remedy.

The government says it is backing British farmers to boost domestic production, increase employment and grow the economy

At the heart of this shift is a concern about food insecurity. Not necessarily as a result of climate change and other environmental concerns (although those can’t be ignored for much longer), but from the impact of the war in Ukraine on food supplies and prices. As a result, the government has pivoted away from longer standing political priorities and is now focusing on plans to strengthen the resilience of supply chains and boost domestic production to help protect against future economic shocks and crises.

While wars don’t necessarily create trends, they do tend to accelerate them. In the case of the war in Ukraine, it has rapidly accelerated the desire of Western governments for freedom from supply chain dependence on Russia and China. It has also increased the trend for food nationalism globally which has lengthened the list of countries Western governments can no longer rely on for food imports as a result, and it has sped up trends towards market intervention. The last significant spike in food prices was in 2010/2011 following a heat wave in Ukraine which impacted crop harvests and can be seen as a catalyst for riots in middle income countries and the Arab Spring, the effects of which are still being felt. The impact of today’s crisis has the potential to be far greater and will be felt particularly acutely in the UK because we have relied so heavily on global markets for cheap food imports.

Agri-food: a growing sector

While new funding programmes to drive innovation will be welcomed by the sector, the government is playing catch up with investors who have recognised the potential of agrifoodtech in recent years.

As with most modern industries, technology plays a key role in the operation of the agri-food sector. However, the pace of innovation has not kept up with other industries and, according to research conducted by McKinsey, agriculture remains the least digitized of all major industries.

The industrial agri-food sector is also much less efficient than others and more susceptible to the demands and constraints being placed on it. A growing global population, climate change, environmental degradation, changing consumer demands, limited natural resources, food waste, consumer health issues and chronic diseases all mean the need for agrifoodtech innovation is greater today than it ever has been, and creates opportunities for entrepreneurs and innovators to create new efficiencies in the value chain. Many of the agrifoodtech start-ups attracting investors are aiming to address some of these challenges, identifying innovative solutions to issues such as food waste, CO2 emissions, chemical residues and run-off, drought, labour shortages, sugar consumption, distribution inefficiencies, food safety and traceability, farm efficiency, and unsustainable meat production.

According to the 2022 Agrifoodtech Investor Report, $57.1 billion was invested in agrifoodtech companies in 2021, an increase of 85% on the previous year. 2021 also saw the UK’s highest ever deal flow with UK-based deals reaching £1.3 billion in value, the highest since data has been collected and up from £1.1 billion of investment in 2020. The UK sits 5th in the global ranking of deals by country, just behind Germany, India, China and the USA, though the UK government has set out its intention to be a world leader in this space. While investment in so-called ‘upstream’ technologies (such as on-farm tech, tools and services) remains high at around $20m, there is a shift beginning to emerge, with interest now moving towards farm management software, indoor farming, ag-biotech (such as gene editing), and e-grocery (which attracted a third of all global sector investment).

The new normal

The challenges with our food system such as supply, distribution and pricing have been propelled by the pandemic, complicated by Brexit, accelerated by the war in Ukraine, and intensified by the cost-of-living crisis. In many ways, this has created a completely different backdrop for the UK’s food system than when Henry Dimbleby published his recommendations to government almost twelve months ago. Many commentators will argue this is why the Government Food Strategy appears to have been watered down in comparison with its original intentions.

Nevertheless, many investors have already recognised the importance and opportunity the agrifoodtech sector presents in terms of investment potential, with many more likely to follow suit. The changes and challenges to the food system we are witnessing today are not temporary. Rising prices, food nationalism, and supply chain challenges are not a blip in the road, they are the new normal. This reality means the agrifoodtech sector is likely to provide an abundance of opportunity for private equity to back exciting, innovative, and high-impact ideas that deliver the ground-breaking change in our food system that campaigners are calling for.  Although this Food Strategy gives the agri-food sector ideas to work with and push the government on, it is also clear that we are now unlikely to see a properly considered long-term strategic response to food insecurity this side of the election.

 

To discuss the government’s Food Strategy in more detail, please email Thea Southwell Reeves on theasouthwellreeves@wacomms.co.uk.

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Holy guacamole! Vegan food for thought this Easter

2021 saw M&A in the food and drink industry bounce back from a tumultuous 2020 laden with supply chain issues, challenges from Brexit, and workforce disruption. According to findings by commercial law firm EMW, the value of M&A deals for UK food and drink companies jumped 950% to £4.5 billion in 2021, up from £430 million the previous year. Interest from private equity helped drive the rise in M&A. In total, 24 UK deals in 2021 were PE backed, making up 42% of M&A deals in the sector. This is up from 31% in the previous year.

Whilst plant-based, free-from and sustainable food and drink have been upward trending for the past few years, it is now clear that they are entering a new stage of growth, with M&A transactions rocketing in the last year. Investments in the ‘low and no’ alcohol and premium soft drinks market also continue to thrive; consumption of these is currently forecast to grow 31% by 2024. And across all subsectors, transactions in healthier and low sugar options continue to rise as trends point towards healthier food and drink options being more attractive to consumers. This is mirrored by a decline in food-to-go, confectionery and frozen foods transactions.

You need only visit the seasonal aisle of your local supermarket to see that vegan easter eggs and sugar-free chocolate are the big trends this Easter, and initial market data is also signaling this. According to research by B2B online marketplace ShelfNow, online searches for ‘vegan easter eggs’ in the UK rose by 79% between 2020 and 2021, while online searches for ‘sugar-free’ reached their highest point in the last five years. To this end, the UK has launched the largest number of food and drink products with a ‘no added sugar’ label in Europe.

Sustainability in food and drink is also catching our attention, with demand for British produce and environmentally-friendly products on the rise. The emerging agritech subsector is booming, with new investment in the global market receiving a record $10.5 billion injection. The UK continues to lead the way in Europe, with the 2021 AgriFoodTech Investment Report outlining $1.1 billion of investment and 164 deals recorded in 2020.

This could be explained by private equity’s spiked interest in environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues over recent years, as investors increasingly acknowledge the role such factors play in influencing M&A decision making. There is now widespread recognition in the investor community that ESG considerations continue to move from after-thought to essential hygiene factor. There is certainly a recognition that investment should align with an organisation’s embodied values. We witnessed this in action recently when many businesses ceased operations in Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. Furthermore, the adoption of a formal ESG strategy is increasingly seen by some investors as a value-creation mechanism. Shifts in mindset like this are closing the gap between the corporate treatment of ESG and its standing within the investor community. With organisations returning to growth mode, we expect the role of ESG to continue to increase at pace.

Though it may seem ripe for the picking, investors with an interest in the UK food and drink market should be mindful of navigating regulatory and policy changes in this space.

The Covid-19 pandemic has altered the government’s approach to addressing obesity. As part of the Obesity Strategy, the government will introduce a ban on advertising foods high in fat, sugar or salt (HFSS) on TV before 9pm and a total ban on online advertising. Restrictions on the placement and promotion of HFSS products in stores will also be introduced. With the spotlight growing on childhood obesity, these issues are firmly set in the political landscape.

Similarly, the government has outlined proposals for reducing plastic waste in England, which will impact food and drink packaging. Plans include banning certain products, a new Deposit Return Scheme for drinks bottles and an enhanced producer responsibility regime to incentivise a reduction in plastic packaging. The Plastic Packaging Tax came into effect on 1 April 2022, introducing a levy on plastic products containing less than 30% recycled plastic content. As this regulatory direction of travel continues, under mounting public pressure and in light of increasingly disturbing IPCC climate reports, investors should expect regulations to become increasingly restrictive.

Investors should also expect the rising prices of energy and raw materials to be a significant issue in 2022. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions, trade restrictions and supply chain disruption are likely to translate into rises in food prices and temporary shortages, according to the Food and Drink Federation. We saw global wheat prices spike at over 80% higher than last year, while sunflower oil becomes rapidly scarce. Global transport problems and workforce shortages will also continue to be disruptive to the industry and full custom controls introduced for goods moving between the EU and UK are causing headaches for food and drink importers.

Nevertheless, the UK food and drink market is clearly at a fork in the road.

We expect private equity to capitalise on this in the coming year. Plant-based, free-from, low sugar, healthy food and drink with a low environmental footprint is likely to bear the most fruit, and that should give investors plenty of food for thought this Easter weekend.

 

To discuss the government’s current approach to food and drink regulation, please email Thea Southwell Reeves on theasouthwellreeves@wacomms.co.uk.

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Statement of Intent: Rishi goes from spender to saver…for now

This article originally appeared in Real Deals on 24 March 2022. 

 

Rishi Sunak might have hoped that his first truly post-Covid fiscal statement could be one brimming with sunny optimism. With the Perspex screens, masks and social-distancing markers gone from the Commons, he perhaps imagined enjoying his time in the spotlight buoyed by impressive growth figures, record employment and harmony throughout the land.

Instead, as the Chancellor rose to deliver his Spring Statement he was faced with an unenviable challenge. Rising energy prices, global disruption to supply chains –exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine war – have driven up living costs to the point of crisis. Add to this the threat of inflation creeping into double digits before too long and Sunak’s task begins to look Sisyphean.

With this context in mind, it was crucial that the Spring Statement needed to outline the government’s plans for addressing immediate economic imperatives and set out a coherent plan for tackling the economic headwinds that threaten to cause economic hardship for millions over the coming months.

And that’s what we got, to an extent. Sunak’s approach sought both to meet the short-term challenges which the economy faces and to demonstrate something of his own ideology in charting a course for the longer term. Since he took office in No.11, the Chancellor has had little opportunity to set out his stall as a true fiscal conservative. This Statement was a marker, outlining a multi-year plan towards economic strength and sustainability, and looking beyond immediate tax rises and medium-term tax cuts.

Saving today, but more spending likely in the autumn

Sunak’s tone was, for the most part, sombre. He repeated the government’s commitment to provide military and humanitarian resources to Ukraine and to ongoing sanctions on Russia, but warned that this would not be cost-free. He told MPs to prepare for the economy and public finances to worsen – “potentially significantly”. The OBR feels similarly, and has revised its GDP growth forecasts downwards, to 3.8% in 2022 and 1.8% in 2023.

Sunak set out headline-grabbing plans to raise the National Insurance Contribution threshold by £3,000 – bringing it in line with the income tax threshold – alongside a drop in fuel duty by 5p per litre for 12 months, and exempting energy efficiency measures from VAT. The Chancellor will use these as clear examples of the additional – decidedly Conservative-sounding – support he is offering.

He has deliberately chosen not to capitulate to those calling for another spending spree to handle the cost of living, instead choosing to save and to leave a clear “margin of safety” to create fiscal headroom. This has not gone unnoticed. The RAC has already called the fuel duty cut “a drop in the ocean” and the Institute for Fiscal Studies has expressed concern about support for those on means-tested benefits. This may come with a political cost. Sunak has gambled that the benefits of focusing on tax cutting outweigh the risks, but with even the Daily Telegraph focusing on the coming cost of living crisis, there is every chance that Sunak will be forced to revise his fiscal strategy.

Charting a low-tax course

In tone and emphasis, this was a very different Sunak to the one who delivered the Budget last October. Where that Budget made large spending commitments – raising the budgets of every government department – the Spring Statement acknowledged that rising inflation will mean that the real-terms increases will now be less than anticipated. Where last year’s Budget revolved around the ever-present phrase “Levelling Up”, this time the Chancellor didn’t say those magic words once.

Instead, the Chancellor unveiled his new “Tax Plan” – an approach to reduce and reform taxes for people and businesses, with more detail on measures due in the Autumn Budget. The publication of the Plan signals a clear direction of travel for the Conservatives for the remainder of this parliamentary term, and the rationale seems clear: the Chancellor wants to keep backbenchers concerned about the tax burden becoming too high on side. His ambition to lower the basic rate of income tax by 1% by 2024 is a sure sign that reducing the tax burden on voters will be a key part of the Conservative strategy at the next election.

But the government will need to walk a careful tightrope over the next two years. It will have to provide enough support to those in immediate need, maintain sufficient headroom to deal with further uncertainty, and still offer enough eye-catching policies to the electorate to reverse their current deficit in the polls.

The Chancellor has been clear that engaging with businesses will be key to the success of this plan. He has long sought a “business-led recovery” and is likely to provide ample opportunities for businesses to make their voices heard as the next Budget approaches. With changes to R&D tax credits, reductions in investment taxes and new incentives for employee training all under consideration, investors will want to make sure that their portfolio companies think carefully about the changes that they would like to see, and develop clear strategies for conveying those ideas to the government over the coming months.

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Rishi’s recipe for growth: private sector investment

Capital, people, ideas. A simple strategy but one built on much thought and observation about the future direction of the global economy, and Britain’s place in it. These are the strategic priorities outlined by Rishi Sunak in his Mais lecture last Thursday. To be more accurate, the word ‘private’ should be added as a critical pre-cursor to all three words.

This was the heart of Sunak’s ambition, to incentivise much greater private sector investment in all three areas. Sunak’s position as a free-market enthusiast was never in doubt and this belief in the benefits free markets deliver sits at the heart of his political and economic philosophy. As such it is unsurprising that his core aim is to lift private investment rather than deploying the power of the state. This approach will be challenged as pressure grows for intervention to soften the impact of rising inflation and the cost of living crisis but his starting point is fundamentally fiscally hawkish.

But what does this tell us about Sunak’s likely approach to policy development in future and key questions around tax and spending priorities?

No un-funded tax cuts

This message was unambiguous. Sunak wants to cut taxes but emphatically does not believe that all tax cuts automatically pay for themselves. Indeed, the unspoken message here was more about tax rises coming down the line. The example cited was Thatcher and Lawson in their first term – fixing the public finances before going on to deliver lower taxes.
There is already intense pressure from the Tory backbenches to scrap or delay the national insurance rise due in April. It is clear the Chancellor will resist those calls if he possibly can given the premium he is placing on strengthening the public finances. This will be a key test of the strength of his resolve, and political positioning ahead of any future leadership bid.

Capital: options to drive more investment

The Chancellor acknowledged that a ‘cloud of uncertainty’ over Brexit and Covid had played a part in holding back business investment but set out his ambition to turn that around now that the cloud had passed. He accepted that low corporation tax on its own had not been enough and indicated that cutting taxes on business investment will be a future priority. Capital allowances are the most obvious tool to deliver this which is likely to be good news for manufacturers.

People: promoting lifelong learning

Consistent with his central theme, the message was that the state is playing its part with an upbeat analysis of the state of schools and university education in the UK. The gap in the Chancellor’s view is the provision of adult technical skills and the need to promote continuous lifelong learning. He wants to see much greater investment from the private sector in upskilling the UK’s workforce.

He pledged to ‘reform the complexity and confusion’ of the current technical education system, noting people currently must navigate a menu of thousands of different qualification options at levels 3 and 4. Reform is clearly on the agenda. Beyond this, he noted he would examine whether the Apprenticeship Levy ‘is doing enough to incentivise businesses to invest in the right kinds of training’.

There will clearly be opportunities for business to inform the Treasury’s thinking on how best to incentivise skills investment, with greater flexibility in the Apprenticeship Levy a potentially valuable outcome.

Ideas: more R&D required

Once again, Sunak’s diagnosis is that the state’s contribution is already generous enough and the gap that needs to be filled is from the private sector. His vision is optimistic, believing new technology such as artificial intelligence can significantly boost productivity across multiple sectors of the economy. However, he was ambiguous on the mechanism for delivering this.

The tax regime is the clear focus for intervention and Sunak strikingly noted that despite apparently generous R&D tax reliefs available in the UK, ‘business spending on R&D amounts to just four times the value of R&D tax relief. The OECD average? 15 times.’ Clearly the level of the reliefs isn’t the only issue and the Treasury is likely to take a close look at how these reliefs are structured and what more can be done to reform the current approach.

This is likely to open up interesting opportunities for knowledge intensive industries, but those that currently benefit from R&D reliefs will need to be alive to the potential impact of change to the system.

Where’s the green agenda?

Many suspect (and are concerned) that the Chancellor is less interested in the green agenda and decarbonisation than some of his Cabinet colleagues. This speech didn’t assuage those worries. There was no focus on climate change or environmental issues. Indeed, the words ‘green’, ‘sustainable’ and ‘carbon’ didn’t feature at all, with only a passing reference to climate change and a single reference to electric vehicles and offshore wind as examples of areas where productivity increases could be found.

Of course, there will likely be other occasions where he seeks to burnish his green credentials, particularly as he will need a coherent green narrative in the event of any future leadership bid. But this speech tells us is that Sunak’s priority as Chancellor is first and foremost restoring the public finances and driving growth via private sector investment. Where green initiatives and decarbonisation help deliver this, he welcomes them but ‘green for green’s sake’ doesn’t appear to be part of his core focus.

What does this mean for companies seeking to influence the Treasury?

There are three core points to consider from this speech:

  1. If you have suggestions on how to incentivise greater private sector investment in the three priority areas (capital, people, ideas) the Treasury will listen and you have a great window of opportunity this year to shape the Chancellor’s thinking.
  2. If you are already planning investment in the UK then be sure to break down that investment and highlight how it will contribute to these three areas: don’t just give the headline figure, provide examples of the new buildings or machinery you plan to build; outline your skills investment strategy and how it will upskill your workforce; shout loud and proud about the any R&D initiatives you are bringing to, or growing in, the UK.
  3. This Chancellor does not believe that increasing the scale or involvement of the state is the answer to driving growth. So any requests for additional funding or more regulation will simply not cut through unless supported by a clear narrative about how this will incentivise greater private investment.

The Chancellor has a plan, and it centres on businesses investing more. This means the voice of business will be critical in shaping the future economic strategy of this Government.

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On the charge: government plans to stimulate the uptake of electric vehicles

Encouraging the uptake of electric vehicles (EV) has become a key part of the government’s plans for a “green industrial revolution” and for meeting its Net Zero targets. The sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans is due to end by 2030, by which time all new vehicles will be required to have “significant zero emission capability”. By 2035, the government plans that all new vehicles will be zero emission.

WA will shortly be launching consumer polling looking into the priorities of the public in relation to EVs, focusing on the barriers to greater uptake and on charging infrastructure in particular. The government has taken the view that expanding and improving the UK’s network of EV charging points will be key to achieving this transition. It is expected that many will regularly charge their vehicles at home or work, but sufficient provision of public charging points – including rapid charging stations on motorways and kerbside charging for those without a driveway – will be particularly important.

There is considerable regional variation in the availability of charging infrastructure. Only 1,000 of the roughly 6,000 on-street chargers, for example, are outside London, and the total number of chargepoints per head in Yorkshire and the Humber is a quarter of those in London. At motorway and A-road services, there are 145 public charging stations at motorways and A-road services, providing around 300 individual chargers across the UK.

Stimulating investment in charging infrastructure is seen as a priority for regulators and the government

In order to promote the development of charging infrastructure, regulators have been keen to encourage increased investment in the sector. In May 2021, for example, the UK energy regulator Ofcom approved a £300 million investment round for regional network companies across more than 200 low-carbon projects over the next two years. This is expected to include the installation of 1,800 new rapid charging points at motorway service stations and a further 1,750 charging points in towns and cities.

These new installations will go towards the government’s vision for the rapid chargepoint network in England, for which the Department for Transport has set the targets of having:

In pursuit of these targets, the government has allocated £950 million to the Rapid Charge Fund (RCF), designed to “future-proof electrical capacity at motorway and major A road service areas”. While the government has stated that it expects the private sector to deliver chargepoints where they are commercially viable, the RCF may provide a potential source of funds for businesses seeking to expand the charging network in areas where they can make the case for what the government calls “a clear market failure”.

Concerns over competition in the charging sector are likely to inform the government’s approach to regulation as the sector expands

Alongside efforts to stimulate further investment in the sector, the regulatory framework for chargepoints – particularly in relation to ensuring adequate competition – remains a subject of active debate, liable to evolve rapidly as more infrastructure is installed.

In July 2021, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published its report – Building a comprehensive and competitive electric vehicle charging sector that works for all drivers – outlining challenges to effective competition in the market in relation to rolling-out charging along motorways, in remote locations, and on-street. As a result, the CMA recommended a number of “targeted interventions” to “kickstart more investment and unlock competition”.

For chargepoints along motorways, where one chargepoint operator holds a market share of 80%, the CMA found that constraints on the capacity of the electricity grid and long-term exclusive contracts prevent entry by competitors at many sites. It recommended that the government use its commitment to fund upgrades to the grid as a means of opening up competition and facilitating market entry.

For on-street charging, the CMA highlighted that the roll-out is slow, and suggested that local monopolies could arise if the market is left unchecked. It recommended that local authorities play an active role in overseeing the market in their areas, and suggested that they could require fresh powers to ensure that they were adequately equipped to do so.

In response to these recommendations, the government has confirmed that it is considering regulatory changes with a view to enhancing competition in the sector. This includes considering requiring service area operators and large fuel retailers to tender charge point service contracts openly and have a minimum of two – and at some sites more than two – different charge point operators at any particular site. The Department for Transport has also suggested requiring existing providers of charge point services at motorway service areas to make their charge points open-access rather than available only to an exclusive network or group of networks or manufacturers. The Office for Zero Emission vehicles’ consultation on the Future of Transport regulatory review closed in November 2021, and its findings will feed into legislation which may feature in the next Queen’s Speech.

The regulatory environment for chargepoint providers is thus likely to evolve rapidly as the UK’s road charging network expands over the next few years. With changes likely to impact established players in the sector as well as providing potential means of market entry for challenger firms, investors will want to monitor these developments closely in evaluating opportunities for their target or portfolio companies.

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Decoding private equity’s video game spending spree

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