Havering Council is set to increase its pension administration budget by £92,000, bringing the total to £0.740m for the 2025/26 financial year. The decision was made during a meeting of the Pensions Committee on Tuesday 24 June 2025.
The increase is primarily driven by a rise in membership numbers and an increase in the price per member, according to the Pension Admin Budget 25-26 Report.pdf. Factors contributing to the higher price per member include inflationary pressures, increased employer national insurance contributions, service development to manage increasing demand, the need to improve data quality, and compliance with new legislative requirements such as the McCloud remedy and the pensions dashboard.
The committee also reviewed the fund's performance for the quarter ending 31 March 2025. The 1 PF Performance Monitoring Qtr end Mar 25 report FINAL.pdf noted a decrease of £10.7m in asset value, bringing the total to £1,007.9m. This was attributed to negative performance in equity allocations. Despite the quarterly dip, the PF Accounts 24-25 - report.pdf showed an overall increase in net assets to £1,008m in 2024/25, up from £969m the previous year.
Looking ahead, the committee considered the 25-26 and 27-28 BP and Report of the Committee - report.pdf and its business plan for 2025/26 to 2027/28, which demonstrates compliance against Myners' principles for effective decision making. Key targets include restating investment beliefs, developing a climate risk policy, and considering local investment opportunities.