Arms companies Thousands to be asked if pension fund should divest

Local democracy reporter

- John WIMPERIS

THOUSANDS of randomly selected people across the region are being asked to decide if a multi-million pound investment in arms companies should continue.

Twenty thousand of those who have pensions in the Avon Pension Fund are being asked to have their say on whether it should continue to invest £18m in the defence and aerospace sector after a campaign by some fund members.

The £6bn scheme administers the Local Government Pension Scheme and has about 100,000 unique members who have worked for 450 employers in areas such as local government, education, and charity work across the former County of Avon. Now the scheme is aiming to survey a statistically representative sample of its members about its defence investments. Anyone who may have a pension in the fund is being urged to check their emails and spam folders for whether they are one of 20,000 randomly selected members of the fund being asked to respond to the survey. Emails are being sent out between September 1-16 and the survey is open until September 22.