Steve Webb

Torsten Bell

Guy Opperman

Steve Webb has some skin in this game. He knew how to hang about to see things through

Steve hung around for very nearly five years as Pensions Minister and it might be argued that he was too good to be fired but a Liberal who could not be promoted. Webb , like Bell came from a think-tank and like Bell, came to the job with a big reputation in pensions.

But Bells and Webbs are hard to find and I don’t think there is a replacement for Bell who could slot into place overnight. After Bell came the short stays of Altmann and Harrington and after the equally long lasting Opperman we got four prime ministers none of which stayed long enough to understand what pensions needed.

People tell me that much of the Pension Schemes Act were half-written by the time Bell arrived in post, this may be the case but I don’t suppose that we would have neither have got a Bill or an Act into place without a pretty committed Pensions Minister.

What happens to Torsten Bell , were he to be promoted from Pensions Minister, then we would be reminded of what we had lost.

My interest, the changing CDC  has taken on its vital second stage and we have been promised a third stage “Retirement” CDC (rather than workplace CDC) and have the draft of legislation by the end of the year ( a promise Bell made to my question in March this year). There is secondary legislation to be written , submitted to parliament and debated before any of the measures of the Pension Schemes Act impacts on what pensions do.

This is a difficult legacy for Bell to leave a successor and my hope is that Bell has a role going forward that allows him (from his elevated role) to be on hand to sort out problems for his successor.

I don’t think anyone should stand in the way of Torsten Bell’s progress career wise. We have been privilidged to have had him for the two years he’s been in place. Not many Ministers have stuck the job for as long as he has.  Few have progressed their careers when leaving the role.

Webb and Opperman are both (in different ways) making their mark in pensions but outside of parliament.

Gregg McClymont, who was Webb’s opposition when he was in post is the one who springs to mind, being an opposition pensions minister is hardly going to win you friends when presenting your CV.

The other Pension Minister I should not leave out is Ros Altmann who remains not just an advocate of better pensions but a formidable voice in the House of Lords.

That puts in perspective the importance of having a good pensions minister, I was not interested in politics when selling personal pensions but the 10 Labour ministers that preceded Steve Webb had some good uns. Andy Young is old enough to remind me of the last Minister before Bell to see in and out a Pensions Commission. Whether we see Bell in place as Pensions Minister when Pensions Commission delivers its final report looks as unlikely as seeing Keir Starmer around for the report.

This report was put in place by Bell and I said last year when the Commission opened that it was kicking the “too hard” into the long grass so that the Pension Schemes Bill and CDC could be enacted and implemented. I had a vague hope that Bell would stick around to see CDC, Pension Schemes Act and Pension Commission report over the line and I still do.

To get so much from a Minister in one parliamentary term deserves applause. Torsten Bell has achieved 2/3 of his big jobs for private pensions in two years and we should be thankful.