"Can pension funds shape the future of capitalism?"

Catching up on things. Last month I went straight from the TUC Trustee Pension Conference to the Fair Pension's Guest Lecture at the House of Commons. This was the second presentation I had been to that day on "Capitalism and pensions". I was with a notoriously quiet and reserved UNISON colleague who is a Local Government Pension (LGPS) expert. The lecture was given by Professor Keith Ambachtsheer, Director of the Rotman Institute for Pension Management (left of picture).

He was introduced by John Cruddas MP who is the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Committee for Responsible Investment. The meeting was Chaired by Catherine Howarth of Fair Pensions.

You can read an account of his speech (and that of Mark Fawcett, Chief Investment Officer at NEST - right of picture) and the full text here. My take on Ambachtsheer is that he believes that Capitalism must be transformed by those who invest in pensions acting as active owners and demanding that capitalism is transformed into a sustainable and wealth creating model. Rather than mainly benefiting "agents" and being subject to their whims.

What I also found striking in his speech was that the traditional argument over pensions about which is best: Defined Benefit or Defined Contribution? Is the wrong question to ask. Instead you should be more concerned with Scale (size of fund), Governance, Investment belief and Fees.  I asked a question about the Local Government Pensions Scheme (LGPS) which has around £140 billion in assets but is split into 101 different funds. Ambachtsheer thought this was just completely wrong to have so many small funds.

Afterwards we went to the St Stephens Tavern where we had some very "interesting" conversations about the future of the LGPS from across the political divide.

London Labour Housing Group AGM

On Monday evening after TUC I went to the first annual general meeting of the London branch of the Labour Housing Group (LHG). The LHG is a Socialist society affiliated to the Labour Party concerned with Housing. The meeting took place in the House of Commons and was chaired by Steve Hilditch. The room was full.

Steve welcomed everyone. He reminded us that 300 people turned up to first open meeting of the London branch which shows how important housing is in the capital.

London Assembly member for Housing, Nicky Gavron introduced the LLHG report “Housing Policies for London”. Nicky spoke about the need to defeat the Tories and elect Ken. Boris is working hand in glove with the government and has given the green light to his Tory friends to get rid of social housing in London.

The guest speaker was John Cruddas MP. Jon was open about the failing of the Labour government over housing. It did a lot of good things but while he understood Labour policy over health and education he never did on housing. It is strange that housing is so important in MP surgeries but not a tension in Westminster itself. Housing did not even feature in Tony Blair’s first cabinet. There is some evidence that housing is moving up the agenda. He made an interesting point linking housing to the financial crisis due to the need to produce complicated financial products that resulted in sub-prime investments. He is thinking about affordable rent models that will also house families who would not be entitled to Council or housing association homes - with different levels of rent. The housing crisis does give opportunities to try new things.

Next was an opportunity for those present to make their contributions and share their experiences on Housing policy. Clive Efford MP turned up to listen as well. There was the usual grass roots Labour Party robust exchange of views. Many had passionate and very personal views on housing in London. My contribution was that we must firstly all work together to get rid of the Tories starting with Boris  before we can get anything done.

The meeting was I thought another successful milestone for the new branch. We now have a committee made up of tenants and leaseholders, Councillors, housing workers, academics and many other ordinary members of the Party who want to do something about housing. Putting the housing world to rights continued afterwards in the St Stephens Tavern.

London Labour Housing Group

I was reminded today that I haven't posted fully on the successful launch last month of the London branch of the Labour Housing Group (LHG). 

Steve at the LHG "Red Brick" blog has of course posted an excellent report.  Check out the comments at this post which gives an accurate flavour of this event.

It was (IMO of course) a pretty damn good Labour Movement Family event that drew together the best elements of our movement. Labour Party elected representatives, trade unions and grass roots Party campaigners and members working together and sharing ideas.

It was held at the Grand Committee Room in Westminster Hall and was packed to overflowing.  Standing room only. It was more like a rally than a meeting. 

It was Chaired by Nicky Gavron AM, guest speakers were Ken Livingstone, Karen Buck MP and London UNISON Regional Secretary, Linda Perks.   Labour Shadow Housing Minister, Alison Seabeck MP came in and opened the meeting.

I think that many people present were fairly shocked at how mean, destructive and sheer bloody minded nasty the Condems polices are on Housing. 

Afterward there was a reception sponsored by UNISON London Labour Link in St. Stephen's Tavern which also went down well.  You can see in the collage above Party members of UNISON Housing Association branch with London Assemby member, Murad Qureshi (who use to be a member of our branch). Double click collage to bring up detail.

I think we will all be looking forward to a future LLHG Policy and Campaigning day soon. 

Check out more photos of the event at Facebook here.