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Reform UK leader Nigel Farage (right) listens as Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice MP speaks during a press conference. Photo Jacob King\/PA WireMartin Shipton <\/p>\n
Pensions Minister and Swansea West Labour MP Torsten Bell has accused Reform UK of planning to downgrade the pensions of council workers in Wales.<\/p>\n
Mr Bell was reacting to an announcement made by Reform\u2019s deputy leader Richard Tice MP that new council employees would no longer have defined benefit pensions.<\/p>\n
When such changes have been introduced in private sector companies, they have often been followed by the total closure of defined benefit schemes, and their replacement by inferior defined contribution schemes.<\/p>\n
Under Reform\u2019s proposals, the party would also consolidate almost 100 council pension schemes into a single \u00a3500bn British Sovereign Wealth Fund.<\/p>\n
According to Reform, the new fund would be required to allocate at least 25% of its investments to British companies and products and would generate \u00a3100bn of investments.<\/p>\n
But Jon Richards, assistant general secretary of the public service union Unison, told the BBC: \u201cForcing council staff on to inferior pensions would leave retired workers poorer and worsen an already severe recruitment crisis for local government.\u201d<\/p>\n
Labour said Reform\u2019s policy would have a disproportionate and devastating impact in Wales with one in every nine employees affected. Around 140,000 people work for local councils in Wales, delivering vital services like schools, social care and refuse collections.<\/p>\n
As well as scrapping the current pensions of council workers, Mr Tice also outlined plans to abolish Wales biggest ever pension fund that is crucial to driving local investment from Aberystwyth to Wrexham.<\/p>\n
Reform propose to merge the Welsh Pension Partnership and its \u00a325bn of assets into a UK wide fund that would not be focused on Wales. The partnership is already supporting thousands of jobs and projects across the Wales, including in housing and energy.<\/p>\n
\u2018Dangerous\u2019<\/p>\n
Mr Bell said: \u201cReform have let the cat out of the bag, setting out dangerous plans to scrap the pensions of one in every nine Welsh workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are plans that haven\u2019t been thought through and where Wales hasn\u2019t been considered for even a second. They would bring chaos to the pensions of over 100,000 workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cReform\u2019s plans aren\u2019t just bad news for the 140,000 workers delivering vital public services. Their plan to abolish the biggest pension fund in Welsh history, recently created by the UK Labour Government, would undermine local investment across all our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pension industry body Pensions UK said Reform had made claims about the Local Government Pension Scheme that it did not recognise.<\/p>\n
\u2018Financial resilience\u2019<\/p>\n
Zoe Alexander, Director of Policy at Pensions UK, said: \u201cThe Local Government Pension Scheme is one of the world\u2019s most successful pension schemes, delivering pension payments to millions of workers across the country. It has consistently demonstrated financial resilience and operational stability throughout regular periods of rapid change, capitalising on economies of scale and a collaborative culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt provides pensions on behalf of 15,000 employers and close to 7 million workers in Local Government. Those pensions are not generally large: the average sum received is around \u00a35,000 per annum.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe latest valuation figures show that the LGPS delivered an aggregate return of 8.9% in 2024 with average funding level of 108%. The next valuation is expected to show this position even further improved. Significant improvements in funding over this valuation cycle are already expected to result in reduced employer contributions. Any savings could be passed onto taxpayers via reductions in their council tax but these decisions are for individual councils.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe policy of consolidation, pursued by both the last and current government, has led to considerable savings, estimated at over \u00a31 billion. These savings are expected to accelerate as the pooling reforms proceed rapidly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vast majority of LGPS investments are now carried out via FCA-authorised Pools, and from spring next year it is expected that all investments in England & Wales will be managed by these large, sophisticated vehicles.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike all significant UK pension schemes, the LGPS takes responsible investment seriously and integrates climate considerations into overall risk management.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe LGPS also has a strong record of investing in Local areas \u2013 and we anticipate that the latest Government reforms, and the devolution Bill, to strengthen this further. It has the highest proportion of investments in domestic assets in the UK pension sector.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny policy proposing changes to the structure or approach of one of the largest pension funds in the world should be supported by evidence, and detailed plans. The duty of LGPS is to look after members\u2019 interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plaid Cymru finance spokesperson, Heledd Fychan MS said: \u201cThis is typical Reform \u2013 an announcement in and for England with consequences for Wales that Reform have neither considered nor care about.<\/p>\n
\u201cFarage\u2019s team of ex Tories are clearly happy to see yet more wealth flow out of Wales \u2013 their plans would abolish an exclusively Welsh fund which would inevitably mean less reinvestment in Wales.<\/p>\n
\u201cWelsh pension funds can and should do more to invest locally and ethically in Wales, but Reform UK\u2019s plan would remove this option \u2013 asset stripping Wales to invest in its own misplaced priorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn stark contrast to Reform\u2019s indifference towards Wales, Plaid Cymru will work with the Wales Pensions Partnership on more sustainable investment decisions, so that more of Wales\u2019 wealth to is retained and reinvested in our communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cReform UK have once again shown that the best interests of Wales are simply not on their agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n the people of Wales.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reform UK leader Nigel Farage (right) listens as Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice MP speaks during a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,4176,4174,4175,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-449172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}