Pension funds Can chancellor win investment boost with 'megafund'?

What is Rachel Reeves planning?

- Kalyeena Makortoff

The chancellor plans to introduce a pensions bill next year that will aim to pool assets from 86 separate local government pension schemes (LGPS) in England and Wales into eight "megafunds", worth an average of £50bn each, by 2030.

Reeves is also planning to consolidate smaller defined contribution schemes across the UK from private businesses into pools of £25bn to £50bn.

There have long been questions over how to handle the UK's fragmented pension landscape, including the assets of the LGPS, which together represent one of the world's largest defined-benefit schemes with 6.5 million members and £360bn in assets.

The LGPS are the gold-plated pensions of local government workers in England and Wales, with final-salary pensions for those who joined before 2014, and a careeraverage salary scheme for those who came in after.

What is the point of megafunds?

The government is aiming to emulate the pension success stories of countries such as Australia, Canada and Norway, where publicsector pension schemes have been consolidated into larger funds that are managed in-house by professional investors.