IPE UK Briefing: Pensions Review and Pensions Commission

After delays and silence on the second phase of the Pensions Review – especially during the Mansion House speech on 15 July – the UK government has finally taken steps to tackle pensions adequacy by reviving the Pensions Commission.

The government’s own figures show that if nothing changes, retirees in 2050 are on course for £800 or 8% less private pension income than those retiring today, and 4-in-10 or nearly 15 million people are undersaving for retirement.

The Pensions Commission will address this by exploring the complex barriers stopping people from saving enough for retirement, with its final report due in 2027.

The UK pensions industry, however, was disappointed that the final report is not due until 2027 and called for urgency and action in order not to worsen the nation’s savings crisis.

Next phase of asset pooling

Earlier this year, local government pension schemes (LGPS) members of investment pools Brunel Pension Partnership and ACCESS were told to find new pooling partners, as the investment proposals of the two pools for meeting new minimum standards set out by the government were rejected.

Between the two pools, there are 21 local authority pension funds that are now ‘in limbo’ concerning their pooled assets.

As they seek a new pooling partner, Wiltshire Pension Fund, a member fund of Brunel, has last month selected LGPS Central as its preferred pooling partner after undertaking a “rigorous and forward-looking assessment process”.  The final decision will, however, be up to the LGPS Central and its members.

Following the government’s decision regarding the future of ACCESS and Brunel,Sally Bridgeland stepped down as Brunel’s chair as the pool considers its current situation and the future needs of the board. Brunel said that Bridgeland decided to step down to allow for a different leadership with the right experience to lead the partnership through the time of “negotiation and major structural change. She will be replaced by Patrick Newberry, who sat on Brunel’s board for six years.

ACCESS also announced this week that its partner funds are nearing the conclusion of their internal processes to identify preferred pooling partners.

Connecting to the Dashboard

Earlier this month, Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) chief executive officer Oliver Morley shared that “hundreds” of pension providers and pension funds with 20 million pension records, as well as the UK state pension, were now connected to the UK’s pensions dashboard ecosystem.  

The digital service, developed by MaPS through the Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP), is designed to let individuals view all their pension information – including workplace, personal, and eventually state pension – in one place, to support better retirement planning. Unlike dashboards in several EU countries, which are more advanced and often offer real-time data, projections, and cross-border portability, the UK Pensions Dashboard is for information only and does not allow transactions. 

Legal & General was the first pension provider in the UK to complete the connection to the dashboards ecosystem in April. Since then, a number of providers announced their connection, including iPensions Group, NEST and Standard Life.

Attractive BPA market

This month also saw increased interest from overseas investors in UK bulk purchase annuity insurers.

The month started with news that pan-European savings and retirement services group Athora acquired Pensions Insurance Corporation Group for £5.7bn.

Then Legal & General (L&G) announced a partnership with Blackstone to combine their respective credit platforms to enhance L&G’s competitive advantage in pension annuities and bolster its asset management position in key geographies and channels.

Additionally, Just Group announced it is being acquired by Brookfield Wealth Solutions (BWS) in a £2.4bn deal after the board of BWS and Just Group reached an agreement on a recommended cash offer made by Bidco, a wholly owned subsidiary of BWS, to acquire the entire issued and to-be-issued share capital of Just Group. 

Items to note:

• The IPE Conference & Awards 2025 is taking place on 4 December at the Palacio de Congresos de Sevilla in Spain.

Pamela Kokoszka

UK Correspondent