Pension minister Emma Reynolds Source: parliament.uk (CC BY 3.0)
Pensions minister Emma Reynolds has called on pension schemes to “work in partnership” with government in a bid to reform the industry and improve outcomes for savers.
Speaking to PP ahead of her keynote speech at the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association's Annual Conference today, Reynolds said her key message for pension schemes was to work in partnership with the government.
She said: "We're very keen to work in partnership with schemes. I think there's a lot of good will to reform the pensions industry and improve outcomes for savers.
"I think we're working with the grain and with the direction of travel that's already been set in motion, but we want to intensify efforts in that regard."
Reynolds said she had two key objectives in her role – to improve the level of investment from UK pension schemes into the UK economy, particularly into UK productive assets, and to improve saver returns.
And while she praised the work that Nicholas Lyons had done on the Mansion House Compact, Reynolds said this was "something we need to build on".
She said: "We want to see these things in the round, and so that's why in July, only three weeks into government, Rachel Reeves asked me to lead the first phase of the Pensions Review, and we're looking at what we need to do on Local Government Pension Schemes and defined contribution (DC) to drive scale and consolidation; a greater focus on value, rather than just purely cost; and then trying to increase investment in the UK.
"We're looking at those things in the round - the Mansion House Compact is a piece of that, but it's a piece of a much larger jigsaw. We'll be saying more about that later in the year and we'll have an interim report before Christmas, and then a final report early next year."
Reynolds also spoke about July's Court of Appeal's ruling in the Virgin Media case – noting that, while the government was going through the judgment and looking at the implications of the ruling, it was a very "serious and complex" set of issues. She said it would be a case of "wait and see" to see what the government would announce around that.
The minister also commented on the extension of auto-enrolment (AE) – noting this was something the government would be looking at in the second part of its pensions review.
She said the second phase of the review would look at the 2017 reforms "in the round" – going into the details of how to improve people's retirement outcomes; the longer-term problems around pensions adequacy.
Reynolds said: "AE has been this quiet revolution that's had cross party agreement, that's been incredibly successful, but there obviously are gaps, because of the age limit of 22 and the minimum income threshold."
