Agenda item

Prior to considering this report, the Chair requested that, following the meeting, officers ask BlackRock for its proxy voting record.

The Committee received the Annual Report on the Pension Fund activities for the year ending 31 March 2015, which was supplied with the audited Pension Fund accounts for 2014/15.

The Chair requested that a summary of upcoming training opportunities be included on the agenda front page.

Councillor Best questioned why the Permitted Observer positions on the Committee were largely vacant. The Head of Corporate Resources explained that the Unions were engaged through the Local Pension Board (LPB).

Councillor Hooks asked whether training could take the form of self-learning, for example e-learning. The Head of Corporate Resources agreed that this would be possible and explained that LPB members were keeping individual training records and completing online modules.

Councillor Ingleby, referring to the report’s foreword by the Chair of the Pensions Investment Committee, felt that that paragraph 2.4 should be changed  to read as follows:

“With the new government signalling its desire to push Local Government Pension Schemes towards pooled investments or structures of an as yet undetermined form, the years of individual LGPS Borough schemes such as ours could be numbered.

And yet, we celebrate the recent birth of the first ever FCA authorised and fully local government owned funds manager, the London CIV (Collective Investment Vehicle), of which we are a member, ready to begin operating later this year as the first ever public sector-run funds manager in the UK financial markets – more than a century after the first wave of municipal-led innovations in our cities.

The CIV offers the opportunities to both save on managers’ fees as well as to potentially target socially useful investment, such as some infrastructure projects, without compromising the primary purpose of LGPS funds, to obtain best value for their members’ pensions.

The Pensions Investment Committee has also helped to set up the Pension Board, which is able to oversee both our work as well as the actual liabilities and administration of pension disbursements, in line with recent government requirements.”

Councillor Best pointed out that reference to “Chairman” in paragraph 2.1 of the foreword should be changed to “Chair”.

The Committee’s Investment Consultant, Albert Chen (Hymans Robertson), proposed the following rewording of paragraphs 5.9 and 5.11:

“5.9 The Fund's asset allocation is provided below.  Details of the Fund's managers and mandates are set out at 5.16”

5.11 replace last sentence with: “The Fund regularly reviews asset allocations in line with the agreed investment strategy to consider whether rebalancing is required.”

RESOLVED that

a)    the Head of Corporate Resources write to the relevant bodies and re-invite them to appoint representatives to be Permitted Observers to the Committee

b)    the Head of Corporate Resources clarify with the Pensioners Representative on the LPB whether this Representative also wishes to be an Observer of the Committee

c)    the Head of Corporate Resources circulate online training materials to Committee Members

d)    The foreword and paragraphs 5.1 and 5.9 of the report be changed to reflect the changes discussed

e)    the Committee approve the Annual Report subject to the aforementioned amendments and noted the Final Accounts.