New Capital Consensus, a coalition of independent, not for profit think-tanks, has welcomed the measures announced in the Pensions Bill published today.

In particular, it has congratulated the Minister on his adoption of a whole system approach and the key themes in New Capital Consensus’s report Reviving Investment Flows  (published in February 2025) including:

·       Recognising the centrality of the pensions system to delivering economic growth;

·       The importance of scale in managing funds; and

·       The need to generate returns for savers both individually and collectively.

Industry veteran and New Capital Consensus founder, Ashok Gupta, says the success will lie in building the right incentives into the Government’s roadmap:

 “Current industry practices are so entrenched that tax incentives will be necessary to get pensions funds to invest in the UK.  To avoid the need for backstop mandation, we believe an 'Explain Then Comply' regime will incentivise the desired Mansion House Accord behaviour.  

“Private DB consolidation is crucial to stimulate UK growth.   But unless life insurers are allowed to set up superfunds outside their Solvency UK ringfences, competition between buyout and superfunds will undermine DB consolidation.

“Finally,” he concludes, “for the providers of capital to commit to setting up a superfund, the extraction mechanism will need to be agreed simultaneously with the enabling regulation.”