Treasury officials have calculated for the first time what a UK sovereign wealth fund built from North Sea receipts could have been worth, BBC News reports. The internal modelling puts its notional value at probably about a trillion pounds.
According to the BBC, the calculation assumes that £200bn of historical UK North Sea receipts were invested, with no withdrawals, and grew at a rate comparable to Norway's fund. The BBC cites Norway's fund as holding $2.4tn. It says officials described the lack of a UK equivalent as a "missed opportunity".
The BBC quotes the chancellor as saying:
"If we had done this when North Sea oil was first discovered in the 1980s, we'd have a British Sovereign Wealth Fund now that would be worth probably a trillion pounds."
The chancellor is also quoted as saying: "The proceeds of this oil and gas coming ashore now can be invested for the future generations". An unnamed insider told the BBC: "Norway demonstrates the power of long-term investment: the government wants to learn from that principle, rather than copy its model wholesale".
The £1tn figure is a hypothetical estimate, not money that exists, and it has not been independently checked. The report does not set out whether any related measure will feature in the Budget on 28 October.