Excerpt from Pensions Expert’s latest article written by Rolhat Zen-Aloush.
Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak have urged UK pension schemes to invest more in long-term UK assets with the goal of fuelling the recovery of the post-pandemic economy.
In an open letter to the industry, published on Thursday, the prime minister and the chancellor of the exchequer argued that now would be the right time to unlock the hundreds and billions of pounds sitting in UK schemes to ignite “an investment Big Bang”.
They pointed out that global investors, including pension funds from Canada and Australia, were benefiting from opportunities of UK long-term investments, while more than 80 per cent of UK defined contribution pension fund investments are in mostly listed securities, which represents only 20 per cent of the UK’s assets.
“While we are glad that international investors prize UK assets and are working hard to attract even more inward investment, we also want to see UK pension savers benefitting from the fruits of UK ingenuity and enterprise, being given the opportunity to back British success stories, and secure higher returns and better retirements,” the letter stated.