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On 28 March the Avon Pension Fund Committee will meet to review its aerospace and defence investments. 

This follows significant work which the Fund has already undertaken, following petitions in December and appeals from Bristol City Council to divest from aerospace and defence companies which supply Israel.

The pension fund has £18m or 0.3% of its £6 billion assets invested in such companies, which primarily supply NATO partners and the UK government.

We’ve received questions about our investments, particularly those in aerospace and defence industries. The Pension Committee on 13 December was also asked about our investments in companies whose products are used by the Israeli military. 

The Committee will review the statements and the legal and financial position, and consider the issue at a public Committee meeting in early 2025.

It has been a year of encouraging progress and development. 

The Fund is in robust financial health, with an improved 98% funding level at 31 March 2024. 

This improved position has enabled us to deliver stable employer contributions, critical given ongoing strain in local government finances. 

Our 2024 Responsible Investment Report highlights the investment risks and opportunities the Fund faces. These include climate change, human rights and biodiversity. 

This year we examine the investment case for solar energy, positive impact via affordable housing investments and a forward look on natural capital investing.

We outline our focus areas for 2025 to ensure we meet our environmental, social, and financial priorities.

We’re investing £50 million to build affordable homes in the south-west and nationally over the next few years. 

Our new investment will fund approximately 250 new affordable homes for up to 1,000 people, a fifth of which will be in the Avon area.

Growth was a common theme for the financial year 2023/24. Whether looking at total payments to members, the number of employers in the fund or the overall fund assets, most arrows point upwards. 

Our robust financial position, with pension fund assets reaching £5.83 billion, brings an improved 98% funding position (up from 95% the previous year).

Have you ever wondered how the money in your pension is invested? If so, you may like to hear about our investment in local solar farms. We recently committed 3% of our assets to local impact investments like this South Gloucestershire solar farm. The solar farm will generate clean energy and help us achieve our new net zero 2045 goal. It will also generate a good financial return.

Our 2024 strategy includes a commitment to local impact investments, an approach embodied in our recent collaborative investment in south-west solar farms. Find out more in the case study, including where we plan to invest next for local impact. 

As committed responsible investors for over 20 years, our strategy covers our approach to responsible investing. You can also read about our approach to reaching net zero by 2045.

Our old website had to be replaced. We decided to take the opportunity to make our website more user-friendly.   

We’ve designed this website to help members do more of the tasks they want to do online, making content easier to find and simpler to understand. 

The new investment forms part of the largest operational solar deal ever transacted in the UK. It involves the Avon, Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire LGPS Funds, who share a strong commitment to tackling climate change. The collaborative investment in south-west solar will generate around 196MW, enough to power nearly 70,000 homes.