And then there were eight.
The £3.5bn Oxfordshire Pension Fund is the latest fund to leave Brunel Pension Partnership, opting for LGPS Central as its new pool home.
It leaves eight Brunel partner funds to find new homes by the end of this month – the government’s deadline.
These are: Avon, Buckinghamshire, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, the Environment Agency, Gloucestershire, and Somerset who have yet to make their call on which pool they will join.
Wiltshire Pension Fund, which had been part of Brunel, also selected LGPS Central as its preferred pooling partner in July.
In a statement, Oxfordshire Pension Fund said: “We have been consistently impressed with the senior leadership team at LGPS Central, which gives us a high degree of confidence that, working in partnership, we can not only deliver but exceed the government’s vision for the LGPS.”
Oxfordshire added they believe that LGPS Central, operating at scale, can drive even “greater value and performance outcomes than those already achieved.”
“Our shared mission remains clear: to provide secure pension payments for our scheme members and deliver long-term value for scheme employers. This partnership marks a significant step forward in that journey,” read the statement.
The fund also noted it was committed to “build a best-in-class investment pool and to the opportunities that lie ahead in the coming months and years”.
These are the final scenes in a drama that came about after the government’s Fit for the Future consultation, published in May, resulted in the culling of two pools: Access and Brunel Pension Partnership, meaning 21 partner funds needed to find new homes.
The decision to admit a new fund to LGPS Central will rest with their shareholders.
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