Enfield Council is set to review its pension fund's local investment strategy, following a meeting of the Pension Policy & Investment Committee on Wednesday 30 July 2025. The review will consider setting a target range for local investments and reporting annually on their impact.
The review comes in response to the government's consultation on the future of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), which aims to reduce fragmentation, improve sustainability and governance, and enhance fund performance through pooling. The government's proposals include requiring administering authorities (AAs) to set out their approach to local investment, including setting a target range in their Investment Strategy Statement and reporting annually on the impact of their local investments.
The government's response to the consultation, detailed in the Government final response to Consultation document, confirms that all the core proposals will be implemented. Key proposals include:
- All Administering Authorities (AAs) delegate the implementation of their investment strategy to, and take their principal investment advice from, their pool, and transfer all assets to the management of their pool.
- The pools are established as investment management companies that are authorised and regulated by the FCA and will be required to develop the capability to carry out due diligence on local and regional investments and to manage such investments.
- The March 2026 deadline for meeting requirements still applies, but may be flexed for those AAs needing to find a new investment pool (and those pools taking on new funds).
- The LGPS Good Governance recommendations will be implemented, with a minor amendment regarding the requirement for a professional independent member to sit on Pension Committees as a voting member; instead, they will act as an independent advisor.
- The requirement for a biennial independent governance review has been changed to be triennial in line with valuation cycles.
The Public reports pack included a report on the government's final report on the Pension Investment Review. The review concluded that larger DC pension schemes will be better able to invest in more productive assets, including infrastructure and fast-growing companies. The review also noted that the Local Government Pension Scheme contributes directly to delivering a number of vital government and national priorities; devolution delivering growth felt in every region, raising living standards for working people, and fixing the foundations of local government.
The committee also noted the contents of reports regarding the investment update and outlook on the Enfield Pension Fund investments and managers, the impact of tariffs, and the performance of equity funds.
Colin Cartwright, Investment Consultant, Aon, provided an investment update and outlook on Enfield pension fund investments and managers at the previous meeting on 26 March 2025. The minutes from the previous meeting are available in the PPI Minutes 26th March document.
The FTSE All World was up 4.1% year-to-date, having experienced a decline of 16% between February and April, according to a chart included in the reports pack.
