Merseyside Pension Fund members to question Wirral Council investment

Jul 2 2008 By Matt Hurst

Merseyside Pension Fund protest, Wallasey

MERSEYSIDE Pension Fund, administered by Wirral Council, could be forced to ballot its beneficiaries over ethical investment if a resolution before Liverpool City Council is passed.

Next Wednesday, councillors will discuss a proposal tabled by Liberal Democrat Richard Oglethorpe, designed to create a legal framework making it incumbent on managers to "hear what fund members want rather than second-guessing their preferences".

The resolution has the full support of the city’s Lib Dem majority and is expected to be passed.

Cllr Oglethorpe said: "Decisions about the use of these funds, which after all belong to the pension fund members, have traditionally been left entirely in the hands of a few councillors and council officers and their consultant advisors.

"I am calling for the views of pension fund members to also be heard.

"Do members want their pensions funded out of ‘profit at any cost’ ventures, or do they want an ethical dimension to be taken into account as well?"

As previously reported in the News, the £4.4bn fund is administered by Wirral on behalf of all the Merseyside councils, but a November vote on similar lines at Wallasey Town Hall failed to achieve success.

The campaign has been led by Merseyside Stop the War Coalition (MSWC).

Chairman of MSWC Mark Holt said: "They are going to try and tell you if they adopt truly ethical investment principles and stop investing in arms companies, it will drive the value down.

"But the truth is only around £13.5m is invested in companies like Halliburton and British Aerospace, which if you work out as a percentage of £4.4b, is very, very low, so it’s not going to impact the value of the pension fund whatsoever."

Conservative spokesman for Wirral Council’s Pension Committee, Cllr Bill Duffy, said the fund is signed up to UN protocols on investment, but didn’t dismiss the move.

Cllr Duffy said: "The pensioners want their pension to be secured, so the pension fund looks for the best return it can get.

"The pension fund doesn’t invest in anything unethical, but if there are small things that could be changed to satisfy everybody, why not?"

Wirral’s Labour party declined to comment and a Wirral Lib Dem representative was unavailable at the time of going to press.

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