Speaking in the House of Lords today during the Pensions Schemes Bill second reading both Baroness Ros Altmann and Baroness Sharon Bowles , asked a very simple question:

Why have listed investment companies been excluded from the Bill?

If HMT were serious about trying to bolster the UK’s economy, its markets and encourage pension funds to invest more in the UK, surely they would welcome every respectable source of capital and particularly one that has proved it can finance growth.

Stranger still, a range investment vehicles have been included, some of which are brand new and untested. Yet inexplicably, the tried and tested investment company vehicle, with a track record of investing billions of pounds into the UK’s infrastructure and renewables sectors and a wider array of other sectors that the Government would like to deliver growth, has been left out.

However difficult the last few years may have been for the investment company sector, HMT seem to have ignored the obvious virtuous circle created by encouraging pension funds to invest in these often UK focussed companies and the impact they can have on the economy. Doing so will help breathe life back into the UK’s listed companies as a whole, lifting values, which will enable them to raise and invest more capital, benefiting all investors, including pension funds.

One wonders why they’ve been excluded.