UK - The National Association of Pension Funds has responded to what has become a major political row over the government's decision a decade ago to remove Advanced Corporation Tax Relief from pension funds.

The move - which reportedly cost UK schemes around £5bn (€7.4bn) a year - has hit the headlines again as it has emerged that Chancellor Gordon Brown rejected advice from his officials that it would harm the pensions sector. And the matter has an even higher significance because Brown is the most likely successor to Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The opposition Conservatives today called for an independent investigation into what they termed a "multi-billion pound raid on Britain's pension funds". They are planning a House of Commons debate on the issue once Parliament returns following the Easter recess.

Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said: "It is time Gordon Brown faced the music for the damage he's done to British pensions."

The NAPF's director of policy Nigel Peaple said: "The removal of the tax credit in 1997 was very unhelpful. But it was only one of several reasons why workplace pensions have come under pressure in recent years.

"Some of these pressures were beyond anyone's control, such as increasing longevity and the fall in equity markets.  But others were man made, such as the introduction of new accounting rules (FRS17) and the decision by successive Government's to increase pensions regulation.

"We've heard a lot about Gordon Brown's decision-making in 1997. But the real story should be about pensions now and pensions in the future."

Peaple said the NAPF is calling on the government to provide extra help for employers offering good pensions, to reduce the burden of regulation, and to design the new Personal Accounts scheme to complement, not replace, existing good pension provision."

Amidst the war of words, the Confederation of British Industry has denied the Treasury's claims that it lobbied for the move. At the time the CBI was headed by Pensions Commission chairman Adair Turner.