Overview
- MPs approved returning the Pension Schemes Bill to the Lords by 272–149, keeping alive a plan to let ministers require default workplace pensions to put set portions into private markets and UK assets.
- Government amendments would confine any order to a single use, switch the power off in 2035, and cap it at up to 10% of default assets overall with up to 5% in UK-focused investments.
- Ministers say they do not expect to use the power and frame it as matching the Mansion House Accord, a voluntary pledge by 17 major schemes to target those levels by 2030.
- Industry figures and peers argue mandation undermines trustees’ duty to act for savers and could channel money into political projects such as HS2 or Northern Powerhouse Rail.
- The bill also adds a requirement to publish 50-year cash-flow forecasts for public sector pensions, excluding local government schemes, while the Commons–Lords deadlock leaves the reforms unresolved.