A hint of change on 1st July? How many suppers does the Chancellor get a month? The last speech at the Mansion House was apparently on July 1st but the next is is on 15th July! My suspicion is that the 1st of July meeting was a diary error on someone’s part!
The question that was asked by the Baroness is important and so is the response by Lord Livermore but the 1st of July has been and gone and we have more to come!
My Lords, I too wish the Minister a happy birthday, and I declare my interests.
Does the Minister recognise the damage caused to UK growth by pension funds? We have the second largest pension system in the world according to the Government, the Exchequer gross contribution is £70 billion a year, and our DB and DC schemes are no longer backing Britain and are selling or underweighting UK equities and risk assets, damaging investments and corporate financing costs. DB pension funds bulk buying annuities is driving up long-term gilt yields, which many noble Lords have mentioned, as the insurer sells the gilts they tell the pension funds to buy as soon as they take over the assets, competing with the Bank of England’s QT sales. Our economy is desperate for long-term investment. Our brilliant companies are being snapped up on the cheap by foreign owners or private equity. I believe in Britain, and the Government seem to have a clear opportunity to require pension funds, if they wish to receive these generous taxpayer subsidies, to put, say, at least 25% of their new contributions into British assets to reverse the doom loop that pension funds have created for our markets and restore some growth.
The noble Baroness and I, along with many others in this House, have discussed these issues many times before. I think she knows that what she wants and what I want and what the Government want are pretty much the same thing. She says she wants to see greater levels of investment by pension funds into UK assets, and that is exactly what we want to see as well. The Chancellor set out some proposals on that in her Mansion House speech last year. We have seen substantial pension fund reform announced by this Government, which should bring an additional £50 billion of investment into the UK. We have seen the Mansion House compact announced just last week—a voluntary scheme by pension fund providers to get more investment into the UK. The Chancellor will make her next Mansion House speech on 1 July. I hope this will include more interesting announcements on this regard. It will also include the financial services growth and competitiveness strategy, which I hope will achieve many of the things that the noble Baroness is talking about.
We got something on 1st July but that was from Rishi Sunak , it’s all here but it was deivered four years ago in 2021
The Chancellor of the Exchequer delivered their annual Mansion House speech on July 1st. This year’s speech focused on the UK’s financial services sector, outlining plans to make it more competitive and globally influential while also benefiting British pensioners and driving economic growth. The speech emphasized a vision for a financial sector that is open, green, technologically advanced, and globally competitive.
15th July 2025 – not the 1st July 2021!
So I think we should revert to the 15th July when the speech is due to happen.
Here is the evidence from The Treasury! (my embolden) What follows is a statement at the end of June that is more accurate about the speech we will hear from Rachel Reeves on 15th July. Targeted Support for more productive investment? I think that sounds like what the Baroness was hoping for!
New targeted support regime to enable more people to make the most of their money
The government will publish proposed draft legislation to support a new regime to give people the confidence to invest and make more informed decisions about their pensions
- The FCA today published draft rules for a new regime of targeted support to enable firms to do more to support consumers with investing and managing their pensions.
- As part of the Mansion House package on 15 July, the government will publish a policy note on proposed legislative changes to enable the future implementation of targeted support.
The government and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are conducting a review of the regulatory boundary between financial advice and guidance to improve access to timely and affordable help with financial decision-making.
Today, the FCA published draft rules for a new regime called targeted support which would enable authorised firms to provide more support to consumers with their pensions and investments, by making suggestions appropriate to consumers with similar circumstances and characteristics. Targeted support forms part of the government’s workplace pension roadmap and will be complemented by a range of other measures to address the challenges faced by pensions savers.
To enable the implementation of targeted support, the government will publish a policy note setting out proposed changes to the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order 2001. The note and draft statutory instrument will be published alongside the Chancellor’s Mansion House speech on 15 July.
Share your views
The FCA’s consultation on the draft rules for targeted support is open until 29 August 2025. The process for providing feedback on the draft statutory instrument will be confirmed on 15 July.
Weather note!
There is a lot more that like the Baroness and Lord, we look forward to. I hope that neither went down the City on Tuesday July 1st 2025, it was very hot at 9pm when I walked past the empty Mansion House!
