The Harrow Council Pension Board met to appoint a vice-chair, approve the minutes from the previous meeting, review a pensions administration update, discuss pension fund committee items, and review the pension board work programme. Councillor Gerald Balabanoff was re-appointed as vice-chair for the municipal year 2025-26. The board also discussed the underperformance of some investments in the fund, and the need to improve performance.

Pension Administration Update

Patrick Kilgallen, Interim Treasury and Pensions Manager, presented a report on the pension administration's performance, noting a slight dip in performance with 52% of tasks completed within the target time, compared to 66% in the previous quarter. The report highlighted mixed results across different tasks, with retirements and deaths meeting targets, but transfers in and out performing poorly. No new complaints were received during the period. The team is working to publish the first set of annual benefit statements and is working on the pensions dashboard¹ project, aiming to be connected by the deadline of 31 October 2025.

Councillor Pritesh Patel, Portfolio Holder for Cleaner Streets & Public Safety, asked about the targets for each case type and the reasons for the decreasing performance. Councillor Gerald Balabanoff requested that future reports include an additional column showing the target number of days for each task. He also raised concerns about the number of outstanding cases being carried forward.

Mr Kilgallen said he would take the questions away and provide written responses.

Review of Pension Fund Committee Items

Mr Kilgallen introduced a report summarising the matters considered by the Pension Fund Committee at its last meeting, including performance, the actuarial funding position, and the government's response to consultations. The report noted that the fund's value decreased by 1.9% over 12 months, underperforming its benchmark by 2.3%, largely due to the poor performance of active equity managers.

Councillor Patel expressed disappointment with the fund's performance over the last 12 months and the last 10 years, noting that it was not meeting benchmark figures or peer group performance levels. He hoped that decisions were made in part two of the meeting to address this trend.

Councillor Balabanoff asked when Harrow took Mercers² on board, and what their role is. Mr Kilgallen said that Mercers replaced Aeon as investment consultants, and they perform due diligence when deciding to divest from or select a new fund manager. Councillor Balabanoff asked whether Harrow is in the same position as other authorities who invested heavily in London CIV³ (LCIV) investments early on, or whether it is still standing as a poor performer even against those authorities. Mr Kilgallen said that it depends on what they invested in.

Councillor Balabanoff said that the LCIV annual general meeting (AGM) was an appalling event, and that the LCIV investment director apologised for their poor performance. He asked whether part of the problem is that they have gone through a number of chief investment officers in a short space of time. Mr Kilgallen said that this may be partly true, but also that they are a mega fund and they ought to be managing their assets better.

Councillor Balabanoff raised concerns that Harrow thinks that the trade union observers can attend part two of the meetings, but the pension board cannot. He said that they are no more subject to the members code of conduct than the board is.

Mr Kilgallen said that the board's access to part two minutes will come up as part of the compliance assessment.

The board noted the report.

Pension Fund Committee Workplan 2025-26

The board discussed the pension fund committee workplan for the year 2025-26. The workplan included the meeting dates for the Pension Board and Pension Committee for the next municipal year (2025-26).

The board discussed the annual report that goes to the full council meeting. Mr Kilgallen said he would look into it and liaise.