Advisory Board – 21 July 2025 – 1.30pm
Meeting Information
Venue
18 Smith Square and video conference call
Combined agenda and papers
Meeting Items
Welcome, apologies and introductions
Meeting protocol and declarations of conflicts of interest
Cost Management, Benefit Design and Administration Committee report Paper I
Investment Committee report Paper J (Annex C CONFIDENTIAL, circulated via email)
Board Budget 2026/27 and Medium Term Financial Strategy Paper K (CONFIDENTIAL, circulated via email)
Summary
Full details of the meeting and agenda papers can be found on the board meetings page. The minutes of the previous meeting, held on 24th March 2025, were approved and the main points arising from the meeting are shown below.
The Board discussed funds’ use of the discretion to delay issuing annual benefit statements that included McCloud remedy. LGPC would continue to arrange webinars on this subject, in conjunction with Affinity Connect, on a rolling basis. On Pensions Dashboards the Board heard that Pensions Minister, Torsten Bell MP, had confirmed that the State Pension’s technical connection to the dashboard’s ecosystem was complete.
Government had also confirmed that it would be introducing legislation to assist with issues arising from the Virgin Media v NTL Pension Trustees case, specifically that GAD could issue certificates demonstrating compliance with contracting out requirements retrospectively.
It noted that the LGA’s pension qualifications programmes had commenced and were running well. The Fundamentals training programme will be running again this year, with London based and online based events being arranged.
A summary of the proposals in the Access and Fairness consultation was provided to the Board, which agreed to adopt the LGPC response to the consultation as well as submitted its own response which has now been published on the Board website.
The Board discussed the Government’s response to the Fit for the Future consultation. There remained concern about the degree and pace of change required by March 2026. It was agreed that pool governance guidance, including on managing conflicts of interest, would be helpful in enabling funds to hold their pool to account. The Board had commissioned legal advice on the management of conflicts of interest, and it was agreed to publish this on the Board website once finalised. The Board also discussed how it should engage with pools in the future and whether it needed to make any changes in its composition or structure to facilitate this.
The Pensions Schemes Bill was introduced to Parliament on 5 June 2025 and had its second reading on 8 July 2025. The Bill includes broad powers to issue directions to funds and pools on investment matters and includes a new power to direct the merger of separate funds. The Board agreed it should seek assurance on the circumstances in which these powers would be used and to what ends. The Board will be making representations on this during the committee stage of the Bill.
An update was given on the development of a new Board website and communications strategy. The Board were invited to attend the inaugural Annual Assembly which is aimed at pension committee and pension board chairs and will be held on 22 October 2025 at the LGA offices. The Chair said that this would be a major event for engagement between and the Board and the chairs.
The Board were updated on plans for the decoupling of pension accounts from main authority accounts via a clause in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill.
An update on the development of a new peer support offer was also received and it was agreed the Secretariat should run a pilot, which could be funded from the 2026/27 budget. The longer-term funding model for the programme would form part of the project proposal to be brought to the Board in November.
The Board discussed the position with United Learning, who are understood to be offering their staff higher basic pay and an inferior pension scheme if they opt out of LGPS. The Board agreed to investigate the legality of this and to recommend removing the ability of employers to offer incentives for staff to opt out of public sector pension schemes. The Board were also informed that the Department for Education has added a stipulation in the academies handbook that a business case was needed to be approved by them before academy trusts could offer such incentives.
The Board also received an update on Code of Transparency framework project along with an update on the consultation on amendments to the Code of Transparency. The final draft of the revised Code would be submitted to the next Board meeting for approval before publication.
The date of the next meeting is set for 24 November 2025 at 1:30pm.
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