Reeves to announce ‘megafunds’ shake-up of local government pension scheme

Chancellor to tell City leaders of Canada-style plan to pool assets for benefit of long-term investment

The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will announce plans to merge local government retirement schemes into “megafunds” as she tries to revive long-running efforts to overhaul the UK’s public pension system.

Reeves will tell an audience of City leaders and chief executives on Thursday that she will introduce a new pensions bill next year that will aim to pool assets from the 86 separate local government pension schemes (LGPS), which together represent one of the world’s largest defined-benefit schemes, with 6.5 million members and £360bn in assets.