Issue - meetings

Proposal to bid for Salix Street Lighting funding

Meeting: 19/03/2019 - Pensions Committee (Item 105)

105 STATEMENT OF INVESTMENT BELIEFS pdf icon PDF 148 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received a report which provided members with the proposed steps to establish a Statement of Investment Beliefs.

 

At the meeting on the 11 December 2018, Hyman Robertson provided training on Responsible Investment matters and the Committee agreed to work towards a formal Statement of Investment Beliefs for the Fund.  A questionnaire to gather the Committee’s views on a range of areas relating to the Fund’s investment approach had been issued and the feedback was detailed in an exempt appendix to the report.  The Committee considered the proposed investment beliefs statement as set out in an exempt appendix and noted that a final version would be presented to the Committee.

 

RESOLVED:           

 

That the Committee:

 

i)          Considered the proposed investment beliefs set out in Appendix A and whether these reflected the broad views of Committee members.

ii)         Engaged in discussion around areas where there were a range of views from the online questionnaires, to build consensus.

iii)       Agreed next steps to finalise a formal Statement of Investment Beliefs for inclusion in the Fund’s Investment Strategy Statement (ISS), and that these beliefs would be referenced as part of future investment decision making.

iv)       Receive additional training on ESG matters to future develop Committee understanding, reflecting comments received as part of the online questionnaire.


Meeting: 19/03/2019 - Pensions Committee (Item 103)

103 THE PENSIONS REGULATOR (TPR) IN DEPTH ENGAGEMENT pdf icon PDF 181 KB

Minutes:

The Committee were informed that the Pensions Regulator were conducting an in depth engagement with a sample of Local Government Pension Schemes and had chosen Havering as one of the funds that they would like to review.  The review would focus on the governance and administration of the Scheme and a report of their findings would be published on an anonymous basis. 

 

RESOLVED: That the Committee noted:

 

i)          The review by the Pensions Regulator.

ii)         Any resulting actions would be reported to the Committee at the conclusion of the review.


Meeting: 19/03/2019 - Pensions Committee (Item 102)

102 LOCAL GOVERNMENT PENSION SCHEME CONSULTATIONS pdf icon PDF 177 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received a report which advised of the Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) publication of two draft consultations that impact on the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), issued in January 2019.  The draft consultations were the LGPS draft statutory guidance on asset pooling and the Local Government Pension Scheme: Fair Deal – Strengthening pension protection.

 

With regards to the LGPS draft statutory guidance on asset pooling, it was highlighted that from 2020 it was expected that pool members ‘should make new investments outside the pool only in very limited circumstances’ and it was felt that this would restrict the local authority and would have the most impact. It was further felt that the implication date of 2020 was unrealistic in terms of having products, resources and governance in place.

 

Members felt that the onus for the extensive reporting requirements on costs and relative to relevant indices should not be on the local authority.

 

RESOLVED:            That

 

i)          The detail of the consultations and the response date for Asset pooling being the 28 March 2019 and the Fair Deal being 4 April 2019, be noted.

ii)         The Committee discussed and provided feedback for inclusion in the consultation responses.

iii)       Members delegated the approval of response on Asset pooling to the S.151 Officer and/or the Pensions Committee Chair.

iv)       Members delegated the approval of response on Fair Deal to the S.151 Officer and/or the Pensions Committee Chair.


Meeting: 19/03/2019 - Pensions Committee (Item 106)

106 PENSION FUND PERFORMANCE MONITORING FOR THE QUARTER ENDED DECEMBER 2018 pdf icon PDF 392 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received a report which provided an overview of the performance of the Havering Pension Fund investments for the quarter to 31 December 2018.  The performance information was taken from the quarterly performance reports supplied by each Investment Manager, State Street Global Services Performance Services PLC (formally known as WM Company) quarterly Performance review Report and Hymans Monitoring Report.

 

The net return on the Fund’s investments for the quarter to 31 December 2018 was -5.6% (or -£42.16m to £692.41m).  This quarter the fund underperformed the combined tactical benchmark by -3.5% and under performed against the strategic benchmark by -7.8%.

 

The overall net return of the Fund’s investments for the year to 31 December 2018 was -3.6% which represented an underperformance of -5.1% against the annual strategic benchmark.

 

Based on the information supplied by the performance measures the total combined fund value at the close of business on 31 December 2018 was £692.41m.  This valuation differed from the basis of valuation used by the Fund Managers and the Investment Advisor in that it excluded accrued income.  This compared with a fund value of £734.57m at the 30 September 2018; a decrease of £-42.16m.  Movement in the fund value was attributable to a decrease in assets of £-41.51m and a decrease in cash of £-0.65m.  Internal managed cash level stood at £15.27m.

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the Committee:

 

i)             Noted the summary of performance of the Pension Fund within the report.

ii)            Considered Hymans performance monitoring report and presentation (Appendix A – exempt).

iii)           Received presentations from the London CIV for the Fund’s Multi Asset and UK Equities Managers within the LCIV platform – Bailee Gifford (Appendix B – Exempt), and Ruffer for the LCIV Absolute Return Fund (Appendix C – Exempt).

iv)          Considered the quarterly reports provided by each investment manager.

v)            Noted the analysis of the cash balances.