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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.

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.

Avon Pension Fund has announced an ambitious new goal to be net zero across all its investments by 2045. The latest move builds on significant work already completed by the Fund to maximise the real-world impact of its £5.4 billion investment portfolio. 

We’re pleased to launch our new Annual Responsible Investment report. Our achievements include adopting a new set of climate targets and a 2045 net zero goal, agreeing a new local impact allocation and joining a south-west partnership.

In the latest step towards achieving our net zero goals, we’ve committed £50 million to a new renewables fund. The fund has been created specifically for a consortium of LGPS funds belonging to the Brunel Pension Partnership.

We've worked with our asset manager to move over £700 million of equity investments into an innovative, Paris-aligned funding solution.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has published a member factsheet - The McCloud judgment and your LGPS pension - that summarises the McCloud judgment and changes the Government are making to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).

On 9 March 2023, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) laid the LGPS (Amendment) Regulations 2023 (‘the regulations’). The regulations move the annual revaluation date from 1 April to 6 April. The regulations are effective from 31 March 2023.

The Government is launching a new initiative which will allow users to securely view all their pension savings in one place. Savers will be able to choose from a range of Pensions Dashboards and, after verifying their identity, users will be able to trigger a secure digital search across virtually the entire pensions industry. A summary of the pensions found will be displayed back to the user on their smart phone, tablet, or desktop browser.

The SCAPE discount rate is used to set the employer contribution rates in the unfunded public sector pension schemes and to determine the actuarial factors across all public sector schemes. The discount rate was reduced on 30 March 2023 to the consumer price index (CPI) plus 1.7% from CPI plus 2.4%.