Employment Rights Bill - Second Reading - PASSED

 

SECOND READING - PASSED. Brilliant job

@AngelaRayner

and

@jreynoldsMP

, and all the Labour MPs who spoke in the debate to explain why it matters and highlight important issues. Now for Committee Stage BRING. IT. ON.

Hat tip @labourunions

TUC Pensions Conference 2021: Fair pensions for all

 The TUC pensions conference brings together representatives from trade unions and the pension sector to debate the latest policy issues.

The full programme and sign up can be found here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tuc-pensions-conference-fair-pensions-for-all-tickets-141667161293

About this Event

This year's conference will be held online and will explore four key themes in a series of short webinars across four days:

• Investing in a just transition to a low carbon economy
• Extending workplace pensions coverage to those workers currently excluded
• Ensuring more workers can benefit from collective pension schemes
• Rethinking the balance between state and workplace pensions

Day 1: Monday 15th March, 13:00-14:40

Investing in a just transition

As investors, pension funds have a major role in the move to a low-carbon economy. So how can we make sure they use this position to ensure we have a just transition, with the workers and communities most affected at its heart?

Opening keynote

- Guy Opperman, minister for pensions and financial inclusion

Panel debate

- Paul Nowak, deputy general secretary, TUC

- Diandra Soobiah, head of responsible investment, NEST

- Tom Harrington, assistant director (investments), Greater Manchester Pension Fund

- Katarzyna Szwarc, policy fellow, LSE Grantham Research Institute

- Richard Hardy, national secretary for Scotland and Ireland, Prospect/Just Transition Commissioner Scotland

Day 2: Tuesday 16th March, 13:00-14:00

Fixing the holes in auto-enrolment

Auto enrolment has brought millions of people into workplace pensions. But millions more are still excluded, and too many of those who are auto-enrolled are not building up enough pension to maintain living standards in retirement. This session will explore who's falling through the gaps, what impact Covid-19 has had, and how we can make sure auto-enrolment delivers decent pensions for all.

- Josephine Cumbo, global pensions correspondent, Financial Times

- Chris Curry, director, Pensions Policy Institute

- Joe Anderton, pension officer, Prospect

- Cara Pacitti, economist, Resolution Foundation

Day 3 Wednesday 17th March 13:00-14:00

Making a success of collective DC

Thanks to the hard work of the Communication Workers Union, the Royal Mail is preparing to introduce the UK's first collective defined contribution pension scheme. By pooling investments and sharing risk, these arrangements can deliver more generous and stable retirement incomes than individual DC. So how can more employers be encouraged to offer CDC, and what can we learn from Canada, where unions have been involved in running this kind of scheme for decades?

- Terry Pullinger, deputy general secretary (postal) CWU

- Chris Roberts, director of social and economic policy, Canadian Labour Congress

- Shriti Jadav, director, Willis Towers Watson

Day 4: Rethinking the role of the state pension

The UK provides a significantly lower state pension than most comparable countries, and relies more heavily on occupational pensions to provide retirement incomes for its citizens. Our system is deeply ingrained and has its merits, but is it time to rethink this balance? Would a bigger role for the state pension reduce pensioner poverty and inequality?

Panel debate

- Dr Bernhard Ebbinghaus, professor of social policy, University of Oxford

- Nathalie Diesbecq, ACV-CSC (Christian Federation of Trade Unions, Belgium)

Closing keynote

- Jonathan Reynolds, shadow secretary of state for work and pensions

#LAPFF Annual Conference - Wednesday.

Last week I went to the annual conference of the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF).

I missed the first day (Wednesday) but below is an excellent report on the day by guest blogger John Walker who is a UNISON member and sits on the Cambridgeshire Pension Fund Committee as a Member nominated representative. I will post his other reports later.

"REPORT OF LAPFF CONFERENCE on 7th/9th December 2016 at The Marriott Highcliff Hotel, Bournemouth

This year’s LAPFF Conference was extended by half a day and so commenced at 2.00pm on the Wednesday.

The Wednesday afternoon session featured two topics that were current in the light of recent developments in the LGPS world beginning with a session on Infrastructure Investment entitled ‘Are funds getting it right?’ The first speaker from the Greater Manchester PF said that his fund were investing in Biomass, Wind Farms and Railways which involved having representatives on the Boards of those Companies.

 A second speaker from the Lothians Pension Fund which incorporates the County Fund, the Lothians Transport Fund and Falkirk Pension Fund were investing in Wind Power and other infrastructure to the extent of 10% of the joint £6bn Fund. The third speaker from Investment Managers Ancala Partners who set out his firms specialist Infrastructure investment options.

The second topic was entitled Investing4Growth and featured a variety of speakers setting out investment opportunities in Private Equity and Alternative Investments. These included a very interesting presentation from Cheyne Capital on its Social Property Impact Fund. He began by pointing out that the population of the UK would grow by a further 10 million in the next 25 years into a situation where there was already insufficient housing – and growing year on year. 

 Successive governments of all persuasions have failed quite deliberately to ignore the affordable housing requirement and the combination of depressed wages growth and increasing prices (especially in local authority employed staff) has grown to crisis proportions. He suggested that with housing stock built to last 30/40 years coinciding with the length of provision of pension funds makes this type of investment a ‘perfect match’.

The afternoon concluded with a speech by the Shadow City Minister Jonathan Reynolds MP who is a member of the all party Commons group on Pensions who paid tribute to the work of the LAPFF".