Council pension reform could give mayors and councillors something local politics has rarely been accused of possessing: a long term plan. The proposal would restore councillors’ access to the Local Government Pension Scheme in England and extend it to mayors, allowing elected leaders to contemplate retirement while everyone else contemplates the next consultation.
Ministers are consulting on the changes, which would bring England into line with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The scheme already has more than 6.7 million members and £400 billion in assets, making it one of the few public arrangements large enough to survive both a financial forecast and a committee meeting about whether the forecast needs a new logo.
The proposal arrives as local government reorganisation and devolution give mayors and councillors more responsibilities. It also gives them a chance to discover that public service has a future tense, although that future is currently being consulted on until 22 December.
“Public service deserves respect,” said Lionel Annuity, Deputy Treasurer for Deferred Gratitude. “Naturally, that respect must be costed, harmonised across four nations and placed in a ring binder marked ‘retirement, eventually’.”
Supporters can point to the ordinary workers already covered by the scheme, including waste collectors, school staff, library managers and parks workers. The pension fund has spent years preparing for people who keep the country functioning, only to become a headline when politicians ask whether they might also be allowed through the same door.
The reform is being presented as a matter of fairness. That is a perfectly respectable argument, which is why it will now be examined by several layers of administration until fairness has become a timetable, a guidance note and a meeting whose minutes will be available after the relevant people have retired.
Earlier changes are also focused on investment pooling and local investment, with the scheme expected to approach £1 trillion in assets by 2030. At that point, a councillor may finally be able to explain the entire system using only a pie chart and the phrase ‘long term value’.
The consultation will close before Christmas. If approved, the changes could give local leaders a pension future at last, proving that politics can plan ahead whenever the plan concerns a date safely beyond the next election. The only remaining question is whether the future will arrive before the committee has finished agreeing what to call it.
Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
