Councillors to be reinstated into LGPS

Published: September 29, 2025

Councillors are set to be once again able to join an LGPS, more than a decade after this entitlement was scrapped.  

Speaking at a fringe event hosted by the Local Government Association at the Labour Party Conference, communities secretary Steve Reed said he was “outraged” when the Conservative government removed councillors’ access to pensions through the LGPS.  

He added: “I am proud as can be to announce today the reversal of that decision – you deserve it.” 

Later in the day, Reed said metro mayors would get their own pension scheme.  

Councillors were removed from the LGPS in 2014, with the government at the time – under then communities secretary Eric Pickles – arguing that councillors were essentially volunteers and therefore should not receive the same pension entitlements as council staff.  

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