Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the proposed pension reforms on member engagement with pension saving.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises that engagement with pensions is low, particularly as many savers engage only intermittently with their pension arrangements and may find pensions and retirement decisions complex. And while auto-enrolment has successfully increased pension participation, too many future retirees face incomes that are too low, risks that are too high and a system that is too unequal.
That is why we are transforming the workplace pensions market, with reforms including measures to drive scale provision, Value for Money and default pensions as well as the introduction of pensions dashboards. Taken together with the Pensions Commission’s work on the long-term future of the system, our reforms are focussed on enabling mass market often disengaged pension savers secure decent retirement incomes, while improving opportunity for engaged savers to access information and support to inform choices.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to support the uptake of the local power plan by (i) Buckinghamshire Council and (ii) Milton Keynes City Council.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
On 10 February 2026, we announced the Local Power Plan (LPP): a joint DESNZ‑Great British Energy (GBE) publication setting out the UK’s largest ever public investment in community energy, up to £1 billion. GBE will aim to support at least 1000 local and community energy projects by 2030.
Buckinghamshire Council and Milton Keynes Council may wish to engage with GBE through its Expression of Interest process, now open on the GBE website. This non‑binding process allows communities, local government and businesses to share proposals so that support can be targeted effectively as funding tools and advisory services are rolled out.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of the co-operative model for energy retrofit.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The government recognises the essential role that local places play in accelerating progress towards net zero and is committed to working in partnership with Local Authorities and Mayoral Strategic Authorities to deliver the Warm Homes Plan through an area-based approach. This includes looking at examples of best practice of localised and community models delivering homes decarbonisation at the scale needed to make more comfortable homes and bring down bills for more people.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what discussions he has had with institutional investors on increasing investment in businesses located within the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Secretary of State and Ministers regularly engage with institutional investors about opportunities for investment in the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor and the Corridor’s strengths in the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy sectors, including Life Sciences, Advanced Manufacturing, Digital and Tech, Clean Energy and Defence. These discussions support wider efforts to promote the Corridor as a globally competitive location for innovation, growth and high-value business investment. The Office for Investment supports this by securing strategically significant investment projects that drive growth, create high-value jobs and strengthen the UK’s long-term competitiveness.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department are taking to support community energy projects on his Department's land.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence recognises the potential role that community energy projects can play in supporting estate decarbonisation and energy resilience. We are exploring opportunities for Defence to engage with such schemes as part of our wider work on energy generation and supply across the Defence estate.
The Department also works closely with other Government Departments and public sector partners, including through cross-Government forums on public estate decarbonisation and local energy planning, to understand opportunities and address barriers to future collaboration with community energy projects.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to increase awareness of credit union services among the armed forces community.
Answered by Calvin Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans and People)
Joining Forces Credit Union Services (JFCU) is a Ministry of Defence (MOD) backed initiative that provides the Armed Forces community with ethical, not-for-profit financial services. The Credit Unions that form the JFCU run financial resilience sessions online which are promoted by Service welfare teams.
Information on the JFCU is contained on the Discover My Benefits portal (https://discovermybenefits-dev.mod.gov.uk/army/service-benefits/joining-forces-credit-unions/) and is also published on Gov.uk (https://www.gov.uk/veteran-support-organisations/joining-forces-credit-union-services). In addition, Defence Communications run promotional articles on the MOD’s intranet highlighting the benefits provided by the JFCU.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has modelled the potential impact of pension scheme consolidation on member charges over the next five years.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Evidence suggests there are a range of benefits from schemes achieving a greater level of scale through consolidation. This includes better governance, economies of scale, increased diversification of assets and improved bargaining power.
This evidence suggests a greater number of benefits can arise at £25 billion to £50 billion (or greater) of assets under management, as set out in the Department for Work and Pensions’ November 2024 publication “Pension fund investment and the UK economy”. The report can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-fund-investment-and-the-uk-economy/pension-fund-investment-and-the-uk-economy. Increased net returns via lower charges for members and higher net investment returns through diversification, both supported through scale, can drive improved member outcomes. This evidence is set out in the Pension Schemes Act Impact Assessment published in December 2025. The Impact Assessment can be found here: https://bills.parliament.uk/publications/63860/documents/7447.
The Department will continue to monitor the impact of consolidation on charges, as set out in our recently published Evaluation Strategy which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-schemes-act-2026-evaluation-strategy/pension-schemes-act-2026-evaluation-strategy.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has undertaken international comparisons of pension value-for-money assessment frameworks.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
DWP has explored international evidence, in particular undertaking comparisons with the Australian value for money (VFM) regime. The Pension Schemes Act 2026 Impact Assessment included evidence about annual performance tests in Australia’s superannuation system which are credited with increasing the net returns and decreasing the fees paid by millions of members.
Additionally, the UK VFM framework has, for example, been deliberately designed to avoid the investment herding behaviours that have emerged in Australia’s system, using learnings from the Department’s engagement with Australian officials to understand the challenges they faced. We continue to learn from the Australian experience of VFM in designing the UK VFM framework.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the proportion of defined contribution pension assets that will be managed by schemes with more than £25 billion in assets by 2030.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
As set out in the Department for Work and Pensions’ November 2024 publication “Pension fund investment and the UK economy” the largest 5 and 10 defined contribution funds (either a Master Trust or GPP) in the UK held 55% and 74% of total DC assets respectively. The report can be found here: Pension fund investment and the UK economy.
The Pension Schemes Act scale provisions require defined contribution multi-employer schemes used for automatic enrolment to have scale of at least £25 billion of assets under management in one main scale default arrangement (MSDA) by 2030 or £10bn if approved for transition pathway relief with a credible plan to achieve scale of £25 billion by 2035. As shown in our Impact Assessment it is anticipated there will be approximately 15-20 multi-employer schemes after the scale reforms have taken place. We will continue to monitor the assets that will be managed by schemes as set out in our recently published Evaluation Strategy.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of pension scheme consolidation on investment in UK private markets.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
DWP’s Pension Fund Investment and the UK Economy Report, and the Impact Assessment that supports The Pension Schemes Act 2026, evidence the benefits of how consolidation and scale may be expected to increase investment in UK private markets. These reports evidence how larger pension schemes with over £25bn in assets are best placed to access private markets and that these assets naturally tend to be more UK-focussed, with over a 40% home bias, so have the potential to directly impact the UK economy. The evidence report can be found here: Pension fund investment and the UK economy - GOV.UK and the Impact Assessment here: Impact Assessment.