Public affairs and policy engagement

Octopus is investing in the people, ideas and industries that will change the world. We strongly believe there is no trade-off between ‘doing good’ and ‘making money’. Indeed, we believe that companies that understand what it means to make the world a better place, will deliver better financial returns for their investors over the coming decades.

We passionately believe in making the UK the best place in the world to set up, scale up and list a company. Our policy engagement work is supporting UK businesses to unlock investment into solutions tackling humanity’s greatest challenges. We are revitalising our healthcare system, empowering people and communities, and building a sustainable planet to accelerate the journey to net-zero.

Policy engagement

We contribute to public policy debates on issues relevant to our business and customers. We do this individually via correspondence, meetings, and consultations and through other bodies listed below.

Our public affairs and policy engagement work is overseen by founder and board member Chris Hulatt to ensure that it aligns with our values and mission as well as the principles set out in our responsible investment policy.

Get in touch

Justine Duggan, Head of Public Affairs

Contact: [email protected]

Justine started her career straight out of school working at the Mirror Group Newspapers and has worked at various national newspaper titles before embarking on a career in public affairs. She made the jump to public affairs working for the Rt Hon Brandon Lewis MP. After 7 years in Parliament, she went to work at iNHouse Communications working with clients such as Sky, Diageo and NHBC before taking on the role at Octopus Group.

She has been a councillor, is currently a school governor and sits on the advisory council of Thames 21.

We are members of the following groups

Principles for Responsible Investing

The PRI is the world’s leading proponent of responsible investment. 

It works:

to understand the investment implications of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors.
to support its international network of investor signatories in incorporating these factors into their investment and ownership decisions.

The PRI acts in the long-term interests:

of its signatories.
of the financial markets and economies in which they operate and ultimately of the environment and society as a whole.

Find out more

The Venture Capital Trust Association

The Venture Capital Trust Association (VCTA) represents ten of the largest venture capital trust managers in the UK, which make up more than 75% of the VCT industry, equivalent to £3.3 billion.

Find out more

Enterprise Investment Scheme Association

The EISA is a not for profit organisation which exists to aid the provision of capital to UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS).

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The Associated Retirement Community Operators

ARCO is the main body representing the retirement community sector in the UK. ARCO’s members include over 100 organisations associated with ARCO, including ARCO Affiliates, Advisory Council Partners, Strategic Partners, and members of the ARCO Accelerator Programme.

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The Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change

IIGCC is a European collaboration of investors mobilising capital for the low carbon transition and to ensure resilience to the impacts of a changing climate by collaborating with business, policy makers and fellow investors.

Find out more

Consultations

Over the last year we have fed into the following consultations and inquiries:

Jan 2021	HMT Budget representation
March 2021	Department of Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy – call for evidence: Enabling a high renewable, net zero electricity system
May 2021	Treasury Select Committee Inquiry into jobs, growth and productivity after coronavirus
June 2021	Department of Health and Social Care’s call for evidence on the Women’s Health Strategy
Oct 2021	Autumn Budget and Spending Review
Jan 2022	Department of Work and Pensions consultation: enabling investment in productive finance
Jan 2022	Department for International Trade’s GCC consultation
Nov 2022	Department for Work and Pensions consultation: Broadening the investment opportunities of defined contribution pensions schemes
Jan 2022	Spring Statement
Feb 2022	Work and Pensions Committee consultation: Protecting pension savers – five years on from the pension freedoms: Saving for later life
June 2022	Treasury Select Committee consultation into Venture Capital Market
Aug 2022	Labour’s Start up Scale up Review
Jan 2023	Spring Statement