George Osborne on the Today programme on Radio 4 this morning:

“There’s a very interesting idea which we want to explore, which is whether you could create a sovereign wealth fund for the money that comes from the shale gas that we’re going to be pulling out of the ground, particularly in the north of England.

That’s a way of making sure this money is not squandered on day-to-day spending, but invested in the long-term economic health of the north of England to create jobs and investment there.

So a sovereign wealth fund for the north of England based on the shale gas there is another exciting idea, another part of building a northern powerhouse.”