After the success that the investment companies industry has had with persuading government to fix the misleading cost disclosure problem, the current fight is to ensure that the new Pensions Schemes Bill going through parliament doesn’t block pension funds from buying investment companies.

This issue relates to the Mansion House Accord. In May 2025, 17 big defined contribution pension providers signed a voluntary agreement that committed to investing at least 10% of their default funds in private assets and half of that in UK private assets. The aim is to help fund much needed infrastructure investment in the UK.

Torsten Bell, who is the pensions minister, hailed this as supporting “better outcomes for savers and faster growth for Britain”.

However, the Pension Schemes Bill creates reserve powers that would allow government to require pension funds to invest a percentage in private assets – shifting this from a voluntary arrangement to a mandatory one. The problem is that the definition of private assets in the bill excludes listed equities – and by extension investment companies. That means that pension funds would not be able to buy listed private equity, growth capital, infrastructure and renewable energy funds as a way of fulfilling this requirement. Instead, the government is suggesting that they invest in all the same types of assets but via direct investments, LP structures, and LTAFs .

For pension scheme beneficiaries, one obvious issue is that the funds would be forced to pay full price for these assets rather than picking them up on big discounts to asset value.

The AIC suggested some amended wording to the bill that would fix the issue back in September 2025 – you can read that here. Once again, we have some peers in the House of Lords fighting in our corner. For example, Ros Altmann lays out the case for using investment companies and REITs here. We are now running out of time to get this fixed. Therefore, the industry is whipping up support for a campaign of letter writing to the main decision makers in government.

If you feel so inclined, it would be great to have your support in this. Here is a link to the industry letter that both Ed Marten (QuotedData’s CEO) and I have already signed. Write to the minister or to your MP (or both!). There is no logic to the government’s stance, it would be great to get this sorted out.

James