Speeches by Bell.

“I absolutely would. I have been making exactly those points to anyone who will listen.”

“Q It is lovely to see you again, Rachel. Thanks for making the time today. A few people have asked questions about the LGPS through the lens of member engagement. There are obviously some implications with the move into greater pooling for that. Given that you are running that and seeing it up close, it would be good t…”

“Q The reserve power is about automatic enrolment contributions; it has no impact on the LGPS. It is the same for surplus: the changes do not apply to the LGPS. Could you confirm that I am correct in saying that? Councillor Phillips: Right.”

“Q Again, I would look at the actual history of what happened. The industry committed to private assets under the previous Government, and it is failing to deliver on that because of collective action challenges. You have to face up to this at the level of the sector as a whole; I am afraid you are giving answers that a…”

“I was encouraging you to say that; you got there. Helen Forrest Hall: Apologies; we are very, very supportive of the vast majority. This is basically the one substantive issue from our perspective. As Sophia has said, the value for money and consolidation elements in particular are incredibly helpful in removing some o…”

“That is not the view of the whole industry, which points to the collective action problem of an exclusive focus on cost, as much as it is a barrier— Sophia Singleton: The value for money framework in the Bill is extremely helpful—”

“Q As we have just heard, there is some cross-party agreement that the main purpose of the changes is ensuring that we drive up the returns to members—particularly financial returns, but also more generally. What do you think will make the most difference, from the perspective of the returns, particularly to DC savers? …”

“Q Thank you both for joining us today. I want to ask you to reflect on the internal consistency of some of what you have said. Implicit in what you are saying is that pension schemes should have been investing in a wider range of private assets over the course of the past 10 years, and that that is what they should wan…”

“Q I want to move to DC pensions, not just DB, given what you do. One of the larger changes in this Bill for your providing to savers is on the default pension benefit solutions. Would you give us an update on your internal thinking about how you plan to operationalise those requirements, if this Bill receives Parliamen…”

“Q So when you are thinking about segmenting, your main segmentation is size of pot and other pensions. Dale Critchley: It is the ability to take risk.”

“Q We all have work to do; it is never all over. Chris, this question is mainly for you, as I am conscious that you have done lots of work over an extended period on the dashboard. Obviously, there are elements of the Bill that relate to that—mainly relating to the PPF—but not many. However, is there anything you want t…”

“Q Given that you think that it is in savers’ interests to be well above the Mansion House targets, why have some people not got to those targets? Are they failing in their fiduciary duties? Why have they not got there yet? Ian Cornelius: It is hard to speak for others, but scale is an important factor, as we have talke…”

“Q Are you already doing that because you think that that is what is in savers’ interests? Ian Cornelius: Absolutely. It is providing attractive returns, it diversifies risk and it also invests in the UK.”

“And that compares to the Mansion House benchmarks of 10% and 5%. Ian Cornelius: The Mansion House commitment is 10% into private markets, with half of that into the UK, so we are already well ahead.”

“Q You have both been involved in the discussions with the industry on the wider move to private asset investments. As you talked about earlier, you are further along the journey than most. You know the numbers in the Mansion House accord. In lots of cases, I know you are planning to be significantly above those de mini…”

“Q This morning we heard from Legal and General and from Aviva on how they are planning to operationalise the requirements in the Bill on default drawdown products. I thought it would be good to give you the opportunity to answer the same question: how are you thinking about that within your organisation? Ian Cornelius:…”

“Q Could you explain a bit about what NEST has done in order to do that? Christopher Brooks: NEST has essentially negotiated with the private finance industry, and is not paying the “two and 20” classic fee structure, so it is not paying the performance fees. It has incorporated it all into its existing charges. If the …”

“Your metric for that is just other income sources plus size of pot? Dale Critchley: It is those main two at the moment. We are also working with a guy called Shlomo Benartzi, who is a behavioural science expert, to look at the whole concept of defaults in retirement. It is one thing defaulting people into taking £120 a…”

“The question to the witness is to expand a bit more on that point. In reality, this provides a “comply or explain” power. In terms of the point Charlotte was just making there, it is absolutely right about the ability of the trustees to say, “This is not in the interest of our members.” It might be worth talking a bit …”

“Q It is not right to say that mandation is at the centre of this Bill. There is one backstop power and there are a lot of clauses that we are going to spend a lot of the next few months—”