Pensions minister praises LGPS pooling progress and rules out further consolidation
Published: October 15, 2025
Pensions minister Torsten Bell was in a very complimentary mood towards the LGPS, thanking the sector for the progress that it has made so far in the pooling reforms.
Speaking at this year’s Pensions UK conference, he said the sector has made a lot more progress than people believed when the proposals were initially brought forward back in May.
He added: “The deadline is what the deadline is. Although some people say, we’d like more time, in other necks of the woods, other people are saying to me, ‘you don’t want this dragging on, because you want to get on with the business of running your pool’.
“What matters is delivering on the returns, and whatever you want to do in terms of your investment strategy, you don’t want to spend five years in the change business.”
It comes during the week that the new pooling environment finally appears to be taking shape, with the final one of the 21 ‘orphaned’ funds – the Environment Agency – confirming its intention to join LPPI.
On this topic, the Minister said it was up to the schemes to make the decisions as to where they’re moving to. He added: “They probably don’t want us to be really unhappy, but you want people who are the responsible authorities to make those decisions, that’s what they’re doing.
“The broad pattern looks broadly sensible, but on individual schemes, that’s for them to make the decisions – but the main thing I wanted to say is thank you to them all for making so much progress so far.”
During his time at the event, the Minister also said there are no plans for further consolidation of the LGPS. Additionally, he touched upon the topic of local investment, stating that the LGPS will “still be investing locally” as it does in lots of cases now.
He went on to discuss the topic of local versus UK-wide investment, explaining: “When it comes to what determines wages and income levels, broadly, it’s the whole of the UK that matters.”
The Minister also emphasised the point that “we’re not trying to solve the regional inequalities in productivity and living standards within the pensions system; we’re trying to solve that through our wider economic strategy”.
