By Joel Benjamin, Community Reinvest
UNISON, one of the UK’s largest trade unions – representing more than 1.3 million people, has launched a Government petition calling for a debate on proposed reforms to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).
The UNISON LGPS petition has been live for several weeks and attracted 80,000 signatures at the time of writing. The petition reads:
“5 million people rely on the LGPS to pay their pensions. Government wants powers over LGPS investment funds, but they could gamble away members’ money on infrastructure projects. This is not allowed in any other UK scheme, including the MPs’. The LGPS must be invested in members’ best interests.”
Divestment campaigners should support the UNISON petition as the proposed changes to pension fund investment principles have received zero scrutiny in Parliament.
Ultimately, it should be pension fund members, not Westminster politicians who decide how pension funds are invested, and many fund members would object to their retirement funds being forced to invest in Hinkley C nuclear, HS2 or Heathrow expansion on the whims of George Osborne.
If the petition reaches 100,000 signatures and is selected for Parliamentary debate, divestment campaigners can lobby MP’s to make their views on LGPS divestment known.
The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) are yet to formally respond to the UNISON petition, however an anonymous source at DCLG has labelled the Unison position that the LGPS breaches EU regulations as “scaremongering”.
In February, 21,000 people signed the “Protect Local Democracy” petition to DCLG hosted on the Fossil Free website opposing calls to restrict council divestment from arms and fossil fuels, threatened by new legislation on procurement and pension investments.