• Clear support for pooling. The consultation sets out a clear preference for pooling to go further and faster. While the government acknowledges the benefits achieved by pooling in its current guise, there’s a belief that greater scale can achieve more.

• Some details offered on levelling up. Michael Gove’s levelling up white paper mentioned a potential requirement for the LGPS to invest 5% in assets that assist with the government’s levelling up agenda. Further notes were dropped into the Edinburgh Reforms and most recent Budget regarding “venture and growth capital”. While this generally raised more questions than answers, it’s helpful to see more clarity around the future path.

• Consideration of requirements to invest in private equity. While wording around levelling up shifted towards “venture and growth capital” in government communication, it was perhaps surprising to see a separate consideration of requirements to invest in private equity. Much of the discussion in the consultation is intertwined with levelling up; however, the potential requirement to invest 10% in private equity doesn’t explicitly state this should be within the UK.

If you have any questions about anything covered, please get in touch.