Andrew Walton on Resilience as an Investment Opportunity

1. Why does Lloyds see resilience as a priority, and why is it important from an economic perspective?

At Lloyds Banking Group, we believe resilience is emerging as one of the most important economic opportunities of our time.

As highlighted in our recent report, Built to Last: Climate Resilient infrastructure needs transformative investment, the resilience agenda sits at the point where environmental pressures and economic priorities increasingly converge. The physical impacts of climate change are placing greater strain on the infrastructure, assets and systems that underpin everyday life. At the same time, responding to those challenges presents a significant opportunity to modernise the UK's infrastructure, strengthen economic competitiveness and drive long-term growth.

The infrastructure that underpins our economy, from water networks and energy systems to the buildings and assets that support our communities, are strategic national assets. They are fundamental to economic stability, national wellbeing and long-term prosperity. Yet those are coming under increasing pressure from climate change.

When critical infrastructure fails, the impacts ripple across businesses, supply chains, public services and communities. That is why we believe resilient infrastructure should be approached with a national security mindset. Not because it is a defence issue in the traditional sense, but because protecting the systems that underpin everyday life is essential to maintaining economic security and competitiveness.

Resilience is fundamentally about supporting thriving communities, a stronger economy and sustainable long-term growth. Investing in resilience means investing ahead of disruption rather than paying for the consequences afterwards. It means ensuring the infrastructure that powers our economy can continue to support growth, attract investment and create opportunity in an increasingly uncertain world.

As the physical impacts of climate change become more visible, the economic case for resilience will only become stronger. The question is no longer be whether we can afford to invest in resilience, but whether we can afford not to.

2. Your new report, Built to Last, states resilience must move from being viewed primarily as a risk management challenge to being recognised as an investment opportunity. What does that shift mean in practice, and how can greater investment in resilience help unlock growth?

Resilience is often viewed through the lens of risk management, helping businesses to absorb, adapt to and recover from unexpected disruptions. While those outcomes remain important, we believe that is only part of the picture. Our report sets out an alternative view – that resilience is not just a defensive measure, but an investment opportunity in its own right.

Investing in resilience is not simply about protecting against future losses. It is also about creating the conditions for long-term economic growth. More resilient infrastructure can give businesses the confidence to invest, protect productivity and support jobs and skills across the country, while creating demand for new infrastructure, technologies and services. In turn, this can help strengthen energy and water security, improve competitiveness and safeguard the essential services on which people and businesses depend.

A good example featured in our report is the Haweswater Aqueduct Resilience Programme, one of the case studies highlighted in the report. The project will replace sections of a water supply system that serves around 2.5 million people, improving long-term water security while supporting thousands of skilled jobs and economic activity during construction. The financing structure, which combines utility investment with private-sector capital, demonstrates how resilience needs can be transformed into investable opportunities that deliver both public and economic benefits.

In practice, that means embedding resilience into planning, financing and investment decisions from the outset, rather than treating it as an additional cost once risks have materialised. When resilience is designed into projects from day one, it can protect economic value, support productivity and generate long-term returns for investors, businesses and society alike.

Viewed through that lens, resilience becomes more than a defensive measure. It becomes a driver of economic renewal and a foundation for future growth.

 

3. What needs to happen next to turn isolated success stories into a scalable market for resilience investment?

One of the clearest messages from our work is that the challenge is not simply the availability of capital or innovation. It is also about bringing together the right partners, structures and incentives to turn good ideas into projects that can be delivered at pace and scale.

We need closer collaboration between government, finance, developers, asset owners and insurers to move more nationally significant projects from concept to reality. That means sharing risk more effectively and recognising the wider economic, social and environmental value these projects create.

There are already encouraging examples of what this can look like in practice.

Our report identifies multiple programmes that demonstrate delivery at scale. For example, the Haweswater Aqueduct Resilience Programme is helping secure drinking water supplies for 2.5 million people for generations to come. Cleve Hill Solar Park, the UK's largest solar park, will provide clean, affordable electricity to more than 100,000 homes each year. And our £500 million partnership with the National Wealth Fund is helping universities invest in the buildings and infrastructure they need to continue driving innovation, opportunity and growth across the UK.

While these projects are all different, they demonstrate a common theme: when the right organisations come together, resilience can become an attractive long-term investment opportunity. These are not simply resilience projects; they are investments in future prosperity.

The Climate Change Committee estimates that much of the investment needed to build resilience in the UK will need to come from the private sector. A key challenge now is scaling successful approaches, so they become the norm rather than the exception.

To do that, we need a clearer and more consistent understanding of what resilience looks like in practice. We need better information to help investors and businesses understand climate risks and opportunities. We need greater expertise across the market. And we need business models that can translate long-term resilience benefits into investment opportunities that attract capital.

Above all, we need stronger partnerships. The scale of the challenge means no single organisation can solve it alone. Government, finance, investors and asset owners all have a role to play in creating the conditions that can unlock investment and accelerate action.

Ultimately, resilience is about protecting and strengthening the foundations of long-term prosperity. If we can create the right conditions for investment, resilience has the potential to become one of the defining infrastructure opportunities of the coming decade, strengthening economic competitiveness, supporting national security and ensuring the assets that underpin our society are truly built to last.