The Bexley Council Pensions Committee was scheduled to meet on 9 December 2025 to discuss investment performance, administration of the Bexley Pension Fund, and strategic asset allocation. Councillors were also expected to consider the potential admission of Buckinghamshire County Council Pension Fund to the London CIV.

Strategic Asset Allocation Proposals

The committee was scheduled to consider proposals to update the strategic asset allocation (SAA) of the fund. A report in the Public reports pack stated that the aim of the proposals was to align with the committee's objectives and investment beliefs. These included:

• Agreeing and reaffirming the strategic objectives of the fund and the Pension Risk Management Framework (PRMF).
• Assessing how the fund is currently positioned to achieve those objectives, reflecting the updated actuarial funding position.
• Focusing on key areas where action is required and considering an updated SAA that is expected to improve the probability of success.

According to the report, the fund was in a strong funding position, with initial valuation results giving a funding level of 119% and an updated liability discount rate of CPI+2.6%. The report noted that the fund needed to be exposed to enough risk to generate the return required to meet its objectives, but not so much that it was overly exposed to market falls. It also noted that as the fund matures, the amount of cash required to pay benefits will increase, so it is prudent that the fund invests in assets that provide regular and predictable income streams.

The report summarised key proposals to meet objectives:

• Maintaining a strategic allocation to the London CIV Absolute Return Fund, a diversified growth fund¹ (DGF), to maintain liquidity and efficient cashflow management. This would be funded by reducing the SAA weights to infrastructure and inflation plus property (illiquid assets) and global bonds.
• Allocating to social affordable housing to meet the committee's desire for positive impact from investments and potential to meet local investment ambitions, as this class will also deliver inflation-linked cashflows for the fund. This allocation would be funded by the core property portion of the portfolio.

Investment Performance

The committee was scheduled to receive a report providing a summary of the investment performance of the Bexley Pension Fund and its investment managers for the quarter ending 30 September 2025.

According to the Public reports pack, the quarter ending 30 September 2025 showed an overall increase in valuation for the fund in comparison with recent performance. This was said to be due to the global financial markets reporting large gains in Q3, supported by a demand for technology, strong corporate earnings and confidence in rate cuts from the federal reserve.

The Public reports pack included a table showing the performance of the fund over the quarter, year, and three and five-year periods:

The value of the Fund's investments as at 30 September 2025 was £1.07 billion, an increase of £25 million, representing a +2.39% change.

Buckinghamshire County Council Pension Fund Admission

The committee was scheduled to discuss the London CIV's business case to admit Buckinghamshire County Council Pension Fund into the pool.

According to a report in the Public reports pack, the government will shortly be passing the UK Pension Schemes Bill 2025 which will require all LGPS funds to transfer their assets to their chosen asset pools by 31 March 2026. Buckinghamshire County Council Pension Fund formally approached the London CIV to join as its preferred pool.

The report noted that the total value of the Buckinghamshire Pension Fund investments as of March 2024 was £4.1 billion, consisting of 8,601 members, and that the pension fund is a keen advocate of pooling, having already committed 98% of assets with Brunel.

The report stated that the London CIV saw benefits in terms of increased scale, improved finances, geographic proximity, and alignment of investment approach, all of which will strengthen the pool for existing partner funds.

Quarterly Administration Report

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on the administration of the Bexley Pension Fund. The report provided an update on legislative and regulatory matters affecting administration, and on the performance of Local Pensions Partnership Administration (LPPA).

The report in the Public reports pack noted that 16.6% of the Bexley LGPS membership are McCloud eligible[^3]. LPPA had successfully delivered Annual Benefit Statements (ABS) with the remedy underpin to over 92.2% of remedy eligible active members and 84.8% of remedy eligible deferred members.

The report also noted that the 31 October 2025 Pension Dashboard connection deadline was not achieved, and that the fund had notified The Pensions Regulator (tPR) of the delay.

According to the report, the Customer Contact Centre recorded an average wait time of 3 minutes 25 seconds across the quarter, which was under the target of 4 minutes.

Other Items

The agenda also included:

• Minutes of the meeting held on 6 October 2025
• Declarations of Interests and Dispensations
• Items of Late Business
• Exclusion of the Press and Public
• Quarterly Financial and Fund Management Update – 30 September 2025