PLSA tackles UK allocation quandary with educational content

The trade group for the British pensions industry has released new guidance for how government can successfully entice more money into UK investments.

The report from the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) – entitled Pensions and Growth: Creating a pipeline of investable UK opportunities – makes recommendations to create favourable conditions that may stimulate higher rates of investment into UK assets.

It follows rhetoric from successive UK governments about the importance of securing pensions money to support the UK economy.

However, the industry cautioned the previous UK government that it would be difficult to compel investment in UK assets as pension funds ultimately belong to the fund holder, so the investment decision rests with them, or more commonly, their scheme trustee.

“The PLSA welcomes the government’s ambition for pension funds to play a greater role in supporting growth in the UK economy. However, our priority is to ensure that policy proposals work in the interests of the millions of UK workers saving into a pension,” the PLSA said in a statement accompanying the report.

“With Government, pension funds, investment managers, investee companies and consultants all playing their part, there is substantial potential to open the pipeline of assets to attract the investment of pension funds to support UK growth.

“This report makes practical recommendations to create the necessary investment conditions for pension schemes to allocate a greater portion of the nation’s retirement savings to promising UK growth areas.”

The full report is available to download – for free – from the PLSA website, here.