Issue - meetings

Neil Buxton, Technical Specialist presented this report which informed the Board that following an amendment to the Local Government Pension Scheme Regulations, a review had been undertaken of the Funding Strategy Statement, which recommended some amendments to the statement to provide additional flexibilities to manage the financial impact of certain pension fund issues on employers such as flexibilities in the making of exit payments and the facility to amend contribution in between valuations.  In response to a question, Neil Buxton explained the type of situations when employers may seek to make use of the changes, using the example of a catering company impacted by Covid with less income than normal.

It was also pointed out that the second page of the statement referred to the statement of investment principles and, whilst this was considered to be old terminology, Chris Norton advised that he would look into whether this required deletion/rewording.  A typographical error in the second paragraph on page 21, section 36 was also noted (changing paragraph 3.8 for 3.7).

Looking at the time horizon for the proposals, the Chair asked about the funding level and Victoria Moffett advised that as at 31 December 2020 the funding level was 91% and the total fund value was £2.5bn.  In view of the time horizon being 19 years, the Chair opined that this was not an unreasonable position.

Resolved – that the Local Pension Board noted the report.