The Pensions Committee will receive an update on the ongoing Pensions Investment Review. It will also discuss the results of a benchmarking exercise that compared the costs and performance of the Staffordshire Pension Fund to similar funds.

Pensions Investment Review

The Committee will be provided with an update on the progress of Phase 1 of the UK Government’s Pensions Investment Review, which is considering ways to improve the efficiency of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).

The Committee will be asked to note the Staffordshire Pension Fund’s draft response to the government's consultation on their proposals. The draft response was circulated with the meeting pack, but will be subject to further discussion and consultation with the other members of the LGPS Central pool before a final version is sent to the government.

The Committee previously discussed the Pensions Investment Review in September 2024, when it agreed a response to the government’s call for evidence. They were reminded that the Minister for Pensions, Emma Reynolds, has been tasked with tackling fragmentation and inefficiency in the LGPS, with a view to unlocking the investment potential of the scheme.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, announced an interim report on the Pensions Investment Review in November 2024. It proposed bringing all LGPS assets under pool management, requiring pools to become FCA regulated entities and tasking them with providing investment advice to their partner funds.

The Chancellor also announced a consultation on making the LGPS ‘Fit for the Future’, which included requiring local authorities to set out their ambitions for local investment in their investment strategy statements. They were asked to work with other local bodies, like combined authorities and local enterprise partnerships, to identify investment opportunities.

Investment cost benchmarking 2023/24

The Committee will receive a presentation on the results of a benchmarking exercise carried out by CEM Benchmarking Ltd. The report compares the Staffordshire Pension Fund to a group of 40 similar pension funds from around the world.

“On a like for like basis, versus the international peer group, Staffordshire Pension Fund is marginally above the benchmark cost (0.546% versus 0.537%) for the peer group. Despite making significant changes to the asset structure of the Fund over the past few years, including allocating significantly more assets to more expensive private market asset classes, the Fund has been able to maintain investment management costs at a competitive level and demonstrate value for money to stakeholders in the Fund.”

Staffordshire Pension Fund Investment Cost Benchmarking 2023/24, Agenda Item 5, p.2.

The report is based on the market value of the Fund's assets on 31 March 2024.

Other business

The Committee will also receive reports on the following:

• The Staffordshire Pension Fund’s accounts for the 2023/24 financial year.
• An update on the audit of the Fund’s accounts for the 2021/22 and 2022/23 financial years.
• A revised Breaches of the Law policy, which has been updated to comply with the Pensions Regulator’s new General Code of Practice.

The public will be excluded for some of the other items on the agenda, as they contain exempt information.