PJ returns – has he ever been away?
I’m not sure how accessible the sessions we watched yesterday will be to the general public, nor how popular watching sessions is to those who are not in the hall. By the furious amount of phone tapping going on in the audience, I suspect that many in the hall were only paying partial attention to proceedings , which is not surprising because not all the sessions seemed aimed at the audience – more at posterity. This was particularly the case with a session I had had high hopes for
Unfortunately, the panel lost the audience , noticeable by the increased use of phones and the small number of questions. I can’t remember how any of the participants helped me the question of “reshaping investment in an uncertain economy”, what I heard was quite beyond me, what I saw was a malfunctioning panel . It was a missed opportunity.
Paul Johnson delivered his usual high-octane , high calibre presentation which had most people in the hall suitably satisfied that Britain was going down the plug. “Welcome Back Paul” said one past PLSA chair, has he ever been away? Personally , I was rather underwhelmed with the way PJ the Economist took questions. There was a little too much of his book and of the IFS’ “pension commission” project and not enough answering the open questions from myself and others. Celebrities need to look to their laurels and not rest on their reputation.
The reputation of both Carol Young and Kelly Beaver (CEO of Ipsos UK and Ireland) were enhanced. Unlike Johnson, Beaver came to life when answering questions and Young was the most incisive a Chair. We learned a lot about the behaviour of voters toward Government which could be translated across towards the behaviour of members towards governance. The huge number of questions from the audience made the hour fly by, despite it being the last session of the day.
What I missed.
I missed the intense debate in the halls , I found elsewhere and especially at a supper where I was treated to a cracking discussion on the best use of the surplus funds in the LGPS schemes. On the one hand, LGPS officers were looking to future-proof schemes while the rest of the table was asking how bankrupt councils felt about paying 35% of payroll into schemes such as West Midlands that claims to be 140% funded.
I also had a pretty interesting discussion with the senior regulators in the room about “adequacy” of DC contributions, which is the main thrust of the PLSA’s latest campaign. It comes down to the same thing for many PLSA schemes. There is money in the scheme to meet the immediate needs of councils (LGPS) and DC savers (corporate DB schemes), but is there the will to unlock surplus and distribute it or will schemes sit on a mountain of money claiming the surplus is “notional”.
As my colleague at dinner said “I didn’t hear you saying your deficit was notional”.
What I missed was more of this. Only once in the day did I hear genuine wit from the podium. Kelly Beaver was asked whether she followed the betting on elections. She replied (unrehearsed)
“I don’t follow bookmakers, bookmakers follow me”
This conference needs some more of that fighting talk
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Good summary.
The £8bn surplus languishing in the West Midlands LGPS could easily cover all the costs savings and swathing job losses Birmingham council are having to implement (+£300m cuts announced a day or so ago). That £8bn, sourced from the local employers and workers, invested in secure bonds would easily throw of a yield of £400-£500M per year! So, why should the workers of West Midlands need to chose between a job and a pension – the area can easily afford both.
Pension schemes have great powers to levy contributions, but they should not sit in Ivory towers while the economy around them suffers. Get the surplus back to the community, or at least find a way NOW to deliver the running yield to the Local Authority to stave of the cuts, and BTW have £300m pa in addition to galvanise local infrastructure/broadband/transport/capex in the West Midlands:
It’s really not that difficult if we have the will!
And this model of overfunding is repeated across most local authorities in the country.