Senedd Member calls on public sector pension funds to invest in Welsh projects

Martin Shipton

Welsh Labour MS Jack Sargeant has urged the Welsh Government to work closely with public sector pension funds, encouraging them to put more investment into Welsh infrastructure projects.

Public sector pension funds are allowed to invest a portion of their money in capital projects. At present investments are often invested across the world.

Mr Sargeant says he would like to see more work done to provide a pipeline of projects covering areas like energy and housing in Wales that the funds can safely invest in. He believes such work would benefit the funds, their members and the wider community, in which all the members live.

Divestment

The Alyn and Deeside MS, who is a prominent campaigner advocating disinvestment from fossil fuel companies, told Cabinet Secretary for Finance Rebecca Evans: “I’m grateful … for the work that the Welsh Government has done with the WLGA [Welsh Local Government Association] and local government partners in this area. Pension divestment is happening in Wales and right across the world, and it is happening because it is the right thing to do – because major economies and investors are moving to other technologies.

“The question is, can Cymru lead the way? As I’ve said before, divestment provides an opportunity, as pension funds can invest significant sums in capital projects. If the work is done to build investor confidence and the pipeline of projects is there, it could be that Welsh projects in social housing, in renewables and in transport infrastructure could grasp this opportunity in front of us.”

He then asked Ms Evans whether she would commit to continuing to explore this opportunity with partners and the Wales Pension Partnership, which represents public sector pension funds across the country.

Commitment

Ms Evans responded: “I’d absolutely give our commitment to continuing to explore those opportunities, but before I do that, I really want to put on record my thanks to Jack Sargeant for the amazing work that he’s done in this space in terms of bringing this to the Senedd time after time, in the work that he’s done having discussions directly with local government on this issue, which he is clearly passionate about. He is clearly a driving force behind the changes that we are seeing, and I think we should all be welcoming those changes.

“I completely agree that that pipeline of projects would absolutely help investor confidence, and I think that the announcement in 2022 that we were going to set up a renewable energy company in Wales to be owned in Wales for the people of Wales has absolutely given us an opportunity to drive forward this agenda even further.

“And we delivered on that commitment: Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru has been in place now since April of this year and it will formally launch later this month. It will accelerate the delivery of renewable energy in Wales, keeping more of the value here. So, I think that absolutely speaks to the idea that Jack Sargeant is bringing forward to the Senedd today.

“I also have to welcome the work by the incoming UK Government on making the green finance powerhouse and ensuring that we have pension funds as part of that. I think, again, that’s a really important part of the agenda in terms of making this shift.”