Isle of Wight pension committee not happy at ‘game of musical chairs’
The chair of the Isle of Wight Pension Fund has described the process of having to find a new home, after the closure of the Access pension scheme pool, as a game of musical chairs in the dark
Earlier this year the UK government swung its consolidation axe, effectively culling the Access and Brunel Pension Partnership local government pension scheme pools and orphaning their member funds.
The 21 abandoned LGPS were forced to select a “preferred partner” from the six remaining pools by the end of last month.
As schemes form an orderly queue and prepare to start shifting assets to their new homes, most have found somewhere to hang their hat but not everybody is pleased about it.
Chris Jarman, chair of the Isle of Wight Pension Fund committee, described the whole process of selecting a preferred partner as “a game of musical chairs, in the dark, where the chairs are being whipped away very quickly”.
“We are having to make progress unreasonably quickly,” he said. “And why the government would want to reject Access, we do not know.”
In August the Isle of Wight scheme, along with fellow Access orphans Hampshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, announced its plan to collaborate with LGPS Central.
But Jarman warned: “It is not a given that by expressing an interest with the fund, they will want to take you on or be the best fit given the due diligence or within the timeframe.”
As the LGPS landscape comes to be dictated by fewer bigger players, individual schemes risk being steamrollered. “We are in a difficult position,” Jarman said. “As a very small fund, we have minimal influence on what goes forward.”
For example, with “local” investment on the government agenda, Jarman wants to “make sure that local means local to the Isle of Wight, and not local domestic UK”.
But despite individual schemes’ reservations, chancellor Rachel Reeves has had her say and there may not be a huge amount Jarman can do: the LGPS has until March next year to be fully pooled with new partners.