Local Government Pension Fund

Lord Wallace of Saltaire Excerpts

Monday 18th May 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

On the last point, I listened very carefully to the noble Baroness’s contributions on the pensions Bill. If she came to meet me, I would treat it as a teach-in on pensions, so I have no problems with having a meeting. The Government are finalising the investment strategy statement guidance in the light of comments received on the draft circulated for comment, as she said, in December 2025. We are carefully considering all feedback received before publishing the final guidance. We absolutely do not want this to be contradictory. We want to make sure that the guidance is crystal-clear because our position remains unchanged: it is not appropriate for local authorities to adopt investment policies that go beyond, or differ from, UK government sanctions or foreign policy positions. We want to make that clear and we will endeavour to do so in the guidance.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD)]

My Lords, this is about local government pension funds and we are discussing guidance; the Minister has just talked about an instruction. Does she recognise that the autonomy of local government ought to be an important principle that we all hold to and that we need to be very careful about how much we limit it? In this respect, including in foreign policy, we are limiting local government autonomy more than happens in most comparable democracies, including the United States.

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The Fit for the Future reforms do not seek to undermine the fiduciary duty of local pension funds in any way. The responsibility to set investment strategies—the key driver of investment returns—remains with the funds, making sure that they retain local accountability. New LGPS regulations will continue to require administering authorities to include preferences on environmental, social and governance factors in their investment strategies.