Lloyds in £30bn pledge to UK projects

UK bank Lloyds Banking Group has said it will support projects arising from the government’s National Infrastructure Plan to the value of £30 billion (€41.0 billion; $45.5 billion) over the next three years.

The National Infrastructure Plan was first devised in 2010 as a pipeline of infrastructure projects that the government wished to prioritise. It has since been subject to a series of updates, the latest of which was in December last year and which referred to a £466 billion pipeline – comprising £277 billion of projects in construction and future investment of £189 billion.

Lloyds Banking Group claimed that it was encouraged to make the latest announcement by the success of its Helping Britain Prosper Plan, which last year set 25 targets to assist the UK economy such as supporting manufacturing businesses and credit unions. It says it has so far met or exceeded 20 of the targets in the nine months since launch.

“Supporting capital raising for essential infrastructure and energy projects is fundamental to delivering enhanced economic growth and developments for businesses, the regions and Britain as a whole,” said Guillaume Fleuti, head of infrastructure and energy at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, in a statement.

Major UK projects previously backed by Lloyds include the likes of the Mersey Gateway Bridge, the Intercity Express Programme and Thameslink. The bank has provided bank debt, capital markets financing and risk management to these deals.

Also in the statement, Lord Deighton, Commercial Secretary to the Treasury, said the Lloyds announcement was “a real vote of confidence in the clear project pipeline we have created in the National Infrastructure Plan”.