The Northern Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) pool said it is looking to expand its local investment activity in line with the objectives for the LGPS set out in the recent government consultation.

It also hopes to use the pool’s experience and support other LGPS pools and funds in this area where possible.

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Gerard Cooney, chair of Northern LGPS

In July, chancellor of the exchequer Jeremy Hunt unveiled plans to boost pension investment in UK growth. One of the proposals included its ambition to double the existing LGPS allocations in private equity to 10%, which could unlock £25bn by 2030 for UK growth.

The proposals also require pension funds to have a plan to invest up to 5% of their assets to support the government’s ‘levelling up’ strategy.

Gerald Cooney, chair of the joint committee at Northern LGPS pool, said the pool is aware of many likely developments expected this year, including boosting investment in private equity.

While “each of the partner funds will form its own views on the proposals” he said it is “pleasing” that funds are expressing a desire to invest in a way that is “financially and socially beneficial for our local areas, which appears to also be a key objective of government”.

Cooney said that one of the objectives for the coming year is to expand the pool’s local investment activity in line with the objectives for the LGPS set out in the recent consultation and use the Pool’s experience to support other LGPS pools and funds in this area where possible.

Current private equity investment

Northern LGPS established the Northern Private Equity Pool (NPEP) in May 2018, an investment joint venture.

It said that the investment pace since inception has been consistent with targets, with over £1.4bn committed to 26 investment funds. As at 31 March 2023 the net asset value of the vehicle stood at nearly £1.2bn.

Northern LPGS also noted that at the end of 2019, an investment commitment was concluded with HarbourVest Partners that specifically addressed the co-investment of Northern LPGS. The target for co-investment to constitute 20% of the NPEP portfolio, providing additional fee savings for the Northern LPGS partner funds.

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Pamela is IPE's UK correspondent. Before joining IPE in May 2023, she spent five years writing about the insurance industry. During her career so far she won awards for Most Promising Newcomer in 2020 and Best Investigative Article in 2022 from the British Insurance Brokers Association, and was also highly commended at the WTW Media Awards for Insurance Features Journalist of The Year.View full Profile

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