'Big bang' theory for pension funds

CHANCELLOR Rachel Reeves will tomorrow meet leading figures from the world of finance to discuss how pension funds worth £800billion can be used to turbocharge the economy.

- Jonathan Walker

She has dubbed the measures a "big bang", in an echo of the phrase used to describe Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's reforms to financial markets in the 1980s.

The Government wants defined-contribution pension funds to invest more in "productive assets", which can include infrastructure, industry and property.

It claims this could give the average retiree an extra £11,000 in their pension pots while helping the UK achieve the highest rate of economic growth in the G7.