Driving investment in the UK: New Financial gives evidence at a hearing of the House of Commons Work and Pensions committee

William Wright, founder and managing director of New Financial joined a panel with Jesse Griffiths, chief executive of the The Finance Innovation Lab; and Jackie Wells, an independent pensions researcher; to contribute to the debate around what a better pension system could look like to support the future financial security of the UK population while simultaneously supporting the UK economy with more productive investment.

The hearing came hot on the heels of the launch of the Mansion House Accord, under which 17 workplace pension providers have pledged to invest at least 10% of their default funds in private markets by 2030, with at least half of that in UK assets. It also comes ahead of the Pension Investment Review final report due before summer, which is set to include further measures to support this aim. 

Speaking before the Committee, William highlighted the clear differences between the UK pension system when compared with other developed pensions markets like Canada and Australia, where consolidation and scale enables their equivalent funds to take a broader approach to asset allocation and results in a greater spread of investments across private markets, unlisted equity and domestic infrastructure. You can watch William’s remarks about some of the structural barriers in the UK pension system that make it somewhat of an outlier, and what we can learn from other countries via the video below.

The hearing touched on many of the themes outlined in New Financial’s February 2025 report on ‘The next steps on UK pension reform’, which also highlighted the chronic fragmentation in UK pension funds in the context of the government’s Pensions Review. It compared the scale, concentration, and asset allocation of UK pensions with their counterparts in other markets; highlights the wide variation in decisions and outcomes across DC pensions and LGPS funds, arguing that more consolidation would benefit the wider economy and millions of individuals across the UK.

You can watch a recording of the full meeting here