Agenda and minutes

Any Member of the Committee, or any other Member present in the meeting room, who has a disclosable pecuniary interest, in a matter to be considered at the meeting is reminded to disclose the interest to the meeting and to leave the room while any discussion or vote on the matter takes place.

Members are also reminded that if they have any other significant interest in a matter to be considered at the meeting, whether registered or not, which they feel should be declared in the public interest, such interests should be declared to the meeting. In such circumstances Members should consider whether a member of the public, with knowledge of the relevant facts would reasonably regard the interest as so significant that it is likely to prejudice their consideration or decision making. If the Member considers that to be the case, they should leave the room while any discussion or vote on the matter takes place.

There were none.

The minutes of the 24 February 2024 meeting were agreed as an accurate record and signed by the chair.

MATTERS ARISING

The Board noted that following discussion at the last meeting, the chair had sent Cllr Dent Coad a letter in response to her concerns over the fund’s investment in any arms industries linked to the Israeli / Gaza conflict. It noted that Cllr Dent Coad had not requested to speak on this issue at full Council meetings since then.

Cllr North reported that he had been questioned recently by those seeking divestment by the fund from arms industries because of the Israeli / Gaza conflict. The Board noted that it had no authority over decisions on how funds were invested unlike the Investment Committee.  The latter was constrained by its fiduciary duties however, divestment had been implemented for Kingspan products following the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

Anerley Smith introduced the report. She commented on the arrival of the Interim Director of Human Resources (HR) Sue Evans, who had worked as Director for HR for several other London boroughs. Anerley Smith drew attention to the role of the Director of HR in making certain discretionary decisions on behalf of the Pensions Team such as over death grant notifications and internal dispute resolution procedures.

Anerley Smith reported that a third of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were in place following new workflows implementation linked to the IConnect system. The Board asked for KPI figures for the next meeting to include those from Westminster City Council and LB Hammersmith and Fulham for comparison. It was noted that each borough had different definitions of categories and accompanying notes should explain differences where necessary.

 Action: Anerley Smith

Ken Davison suggested that the annual letter explaining the annual pension increase could include each pension holder’s current gross LPGS annual figure and this would assist in the application for loans or pension credits. Anerley Smith advised that this information could be sent on request or obtained via the online self-service portal and the P60 for provided annual updates on pension entitlement. She said that the system was not set up to provide this extra information automatically to all recipients which would be necessary if it was incorporated in letters setting out annual pension increases linked to the inflation rate.  

Julia Stevens summarised the report commenting that the overall quarterly performance was very positive. She would be presenting the annual report figures at July’s meeting.

Cllr Lindsay questioned the reliability of assumptions made by actuaries that informed their predictions of rates of return from investments and noted that even slightly incorrect assumptions could have significant impacts on future returns. Pat Rowe acknowledged there was a level of uncertainty in determining the assumptions used for the valuation but reassured the board that Hymans Robertson relied on robust models and was conservative in its estimates.

The Board noted that a training session on actuarial aspects of the fund could be arranged to explore this issue further.  The report was noted.

Julia Stevens introduced the report. She continued to amend the risk categories in the register of the dashboard and commented that geopolitical uncertainties linked to risks would be highlighted and taken into account. For July’s meeting, she was aiming to have the updated dashboard ready.

Action:Julia Stevens

The risk management update with the risk register was noted.

Julia Stevens updated the Board on the cashflow position. She identified the growth in rental income in maintaining positive cash balances as well as healthy returns from index linked guilts. Interest was earned for cash held in the custodial account continued and part of the custodial account money was used for property acquisitions.

The report was noted.

(Each written report on the Agenda detailed above:

(i)     was made available for public inspection from the date of the Agenda;

(ii)    incorporates a list of the background papers which (i) disclose any facts or matters on which that report, or any important part of it, is based; and (ii) have been relied upon to a material extent in preparing it.  (Relevant documents which contain confidential or exempt information are not listed.); and

(iii)    may, with the consent of the Chairman and subject to specified reasons, be supported at the meeting by way of oral statement or further written report in the event of special circumstances arising after the despatch of the Agenda.)

None.