The Pensions Committee of Wolverhampton Council is scheduled to meet on 24 September 2025 to discuss a range of topics, including responsible investment activities, budget monitoring, and the pension administration strategy. The committee will also receive updates on customer engagement, pension administration, risk and assurance, and quarterly investment performance. Additionally, the committee will be asked to approve the delegation of authority to the Chair to approve the final statement of accounts and the final publication of the 2024-25 Annual Report and Accounts.

Responsible Investment Activities

The committee will be provided with an update on responsible investment activities. This will include a review of the Fund's engagement and voting activity for the three months ending 30 June 2025, as detailed in the WMPF Engagement Report Q2 2025 and WMPF Voting Activity Q2 2025.

The report pack notes that the Fund is a signatory to the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), and that the reporting focused on the Fund's responsible investment commitments, progress against goals, and next steps. Outcomes from the Fund's submission is expected to be received in November 2025 and the results will be shared with the Pensions Committee once received.

Also included is the publication of the Fund's Local Investment Impact Report. The report provides analysis on the Fund's private market investments in the UK, West Midlands and wider Midlands area and the impact these investments have generated. The report covered £2.8 billion of private market investments. £2.2 billion was attributed to assets within the UK. A further £203 million of investments were made directly into the West Midlands area. These investments include housing, infrastructure, clean energy, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) financing and commercial property. The report provides a baseline for assessing the Fund's local investments and will support ongoing work in the development of the Fund's local investment strategy as well as future reporting including continued assessment of the impact generated by these investments.

The report pack also refers to a whitepaper on local investing, coordinated by The Good Economy. The whitepaper was developed in partnership with fund managers, government agencies, trade bodies, pools, and funds within the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). The whitepaper is designed to propose a common strategic framework for developing local investment strategies that can be readily adopted by LGPS Administering Authorities (AAs) and their investment pools. The paper aims to support the UK government's ambition from its Pensions Review to encourage LGPS funds and pools to increase local investments. The methodology underpinning the whitepaper builds on The Good Economy's Place-Based Impact Investing (PBII) model published in 2021.

The committee will also note the issues discussed by the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF) as set out in their Quarterly Engagement Report, the research and engagement activity undertaken by EOS at Federated Hermes as set out in their Public Engagement Report and the issues discussed by LGPS Central as set out in their Quarterly Stewardship Update.

Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25

The committee will be asked to approve the delegation of authority to Councillor Milkinderpal Jaspal, Chair of the Pensions Committee to approve the final Statement of Accounts, once the audit is completed, and the final publication of the Fund's 2024-25 Annual Report, agreed by the Committee in June 2025. The committee will also note an update on the Fund's External Audit from Grant Thornton.

The report pack states that representatives of Grant Thornton will be in attendance at the meeting to provide an update on the progress of the audit work. The final Audit Findings Report (AFR) will be presented at the next Pension Committee meeting (December 2025) with Committee members having the opportunity to meet with the Auditor for a detailed review of the AFR as part of their November training session, and in advance of the December meeting.

Budget Monitoring and Quarterly Accounts

The committee will be asked to approve the Debt Recovery Policy and to note updates on the forecast outturn against the operating budget, and the quarterly accounts to 30 June 2025.

The report pack notes that in line with the Debt Recovery Policy any individual debt write-off over £100,000 is reported to the Pensions Committee. During the reporting period there were no such items.

The committee will also note that the value of the net assets of the West Midlands Pension Fund at the end of the quarter ended 30 June 2025 was £21.9 billion (£21.8 billion net investment assets).

Pensions Administration Strategy

The committee will be asked to approve the revised draft Pensions Administration Strategy, including amendments based upon feedback received from employers as part of the formal consultation. The committee will also note the elements of employer feedback, which will be incorporated into the next review of the Pensions Administration Strategy, anticipated in 2026.

The report pack notes that formal responses were received from 15 individual employers, some of them comprehensive in nature, which has provided valuable feedback to take into consideration alongside informal feedback shared through employer forums.

Customer Engagement

The committee will receive an update of the Fund's customer engagement activity over the period. This will include engagement activity across multiple channels during the period.

The report pack notes that the Member Services team delivers member support via hybrid channels including member webinars, face to face presentations and following up with individual pension consultations as required. During this reporting period the team supported 1,748 members with their retirement journey.

The report pack also notes that the Fund's roadshow vehicle delivered 2 roadshow events, to one depot and one Further Education college. These provided members with face-to-face support with their benefits in the month of April. In total during the depot roadshows, pension support was provided to 72 members. Feedback confirmed 88% rated them as excellent, 12% as very good.

Pensions Administration

The committee will receive an update on the routine operational work undertaken by the pensions administration service areas during the period 01 April to 30 June 2025.

The report pack notes that casework and statistics continue to be monitored weekly across a suite of processes to track volumes incoming and completed which aid in the review and allocation of work. At the same time, focused processing of aged cases continues alongside priority cases.

The committee will also note that there were 13 admissions approved by the Chair during the period in regard to an application for admission from employers into the Fund.

Risk and Assurance

The committee will receive an overview on the work of the Fund to deliver a well governed scheme. This will include noting the latest Strategic Risk Register and areas being closely monitored in the current environment, and the compliance monitoring activity undertaken during the quarter.

Quarterly Investment Report

The committee will receive an update on developments in investment markets, asset allocation and investment performance over the latest quarter in relation to the West Midlands Pension Fund (Main Fund and Admitted Body Sub Funds). The report pack includes the Q2 2025 Market and Investment Update prepared by Mercer, the Fund's Investment Consultant.

Exclusion of press and public

The committee will be asked to pass a resolution to exclude the press and public from the meeting for the following items of business as they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information falling within paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972¹.

Investment Strategy and Activity Update, Funding and 2025 Actuarial Valuation, LGPS Investment Pooling, Development of Fund Resources and Operating Model, Member Case Review Panel Update, and Pensions Dashboards Update

These items are to be discussed in private, as they contain information relating to the financial or business affairs of particular individuals or organisations.