{"id":244520,"date":"2025-07-07T05:52:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T05:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/244520\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T05:52:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T05:52:10","slug":"forcing-pensions-into-british-assets-like-capital-controls-says-lloyds-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/244520\/","title":{"rendered":"Forcing pensions into British assets like \u2018capital controls\u2019, says Lloyds boss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stay informed with free updates<\/p>\n

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The boss of Lloyds Banking Group has likened forcing pension funds to invest in UK assets to \u201ccapital controls\u201d, arguing that tackling the housing crisis and improving Britons\u2019 financial resilience would be a better way to grow the economy.<\/p>\n

Charlie Nunn said mandation would put funds \u201cin conflict\u201d with their fiduciary legal obligations to find the best returns for pensioners. <\/p>\n

\u201cMandating allocations of pension funds is a form of capital control. I have spent 10 years of my working life in China and many jurisdictions where there are capital controls,\u201d he told the Financial Times. \u201cThat is a different model and that is a difficult slope for an economy that believes it is an open economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments from the chief executive of Lloyds, the UK\u2019s largest retail bank and owner of pension provider Scottish Widows, come days ahead of chancellor Rachel Reeves\u2019 Mansion House speech, which will include a strategy for the financial services industry. <\/p>\n

The government has already said it would create<\/a> a \u201cbackstop\u201d power to force pension funds to invest in British assets, such as infrastructure, housing and fast-growing businesses, alongside voluntary agreements with the sector. There is also a debate over whether requiring set levels of investment into UK equities would help address the decline in backing by domestic institutions of British listed companies. <\/p>\n

Lloyds already has \u00a335bn allocated towards investing in British assets, noted Nunn.<\/p>\n

An expected announcement by Reeves of a cut to the annual tax-free cash Isa allowance <\/a>was just a small part of the battle in fixing the UK\u2019s financial health, Nunn added. <\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone gets tied up in the cash Isa debate\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009which is relevant for a few rich people if we are honest about it. But that\u2019s not where the problem is, that\u2019s not the way to turn around the economy\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

Cutting the cash Isa allowance would be designed to encourage more savers into equities amid hopes it will help revive the fortunes of the London Stock Exchange. But Nunn said a lack of financial advice was also preventing people from saving more efficiently, with about 70 per cent of Brits having less than \u00a35,000 in savings. <\/p>\n

The Labour government\u2019s retreat this week on welfare reforms stoked fears that the chancellor will ultimately have to increase taxes to plug the \u00a35bn hole in the public finances. <\/p>\n

There is also unease in the City that the chancellor could boost the Treasury coffers by increasing the bank levy \u2014 one option included on a leaked memo<\/a> by deputy prime minister Angela Rayner earlier this year. <\/p>\n

Nunn said there have been \u201cno discussions on that\u201d with the government. But he stressed that any increase the corporation tax rate for banks would \u201cslow down my ability to lend to real customers and support business and growth\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Lloyds boss highlighted that Britain was facing a \u201chousing crisis that has been forty years in the making\u201d, particularly for affordable homes with 1.5mn fewer homes available on social rents than in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

Ahead of a social housing forum organised by Lloyds on Monday, Nunn said co-ordination between lenders, developers, local councils and government was essential to solve the issue.<\/p>\n

The bank, which has lent more than \u00a320bn to the social housing sector, plans to turn one of its older data centres in Pudsey, West Yorkshire into 124 affordable homes.<\/p>\n

Lloyds has set itself a target of supporting 1mn homes at socially affordable rents over the next decade. \u201cI always believe if you\u2019re not ambitious about targets it\u2019s never going to happen,\u201d Nunn says.<\/p>\n

Despite lofty targets \u2014 with the government also pledging to build 1.5mn homes in England in the five years to 2029 \u2014 the number of homes built last year went backwards, Nunn acknowledged. Private firms are reluctant to lose money on development by building into a downturn, while cash-strapped local councils are spending more retrofits for sustainability, as well as safety issues caused by cladding, than building homes.<\/p>\n

Nunn called housing a \u201ccritical need\u201d for the UK\u2019s growth ambitions: \u201cBecause this will drive growth in communities, productivity, it\u2019s very important as a foundation for the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to do more and we need to do it faster. These are massive issues for people in the UK and they aren\u2019t being resolved quickly enough,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Nunn said Lloyds took a \u201cglass half full\u201d approach to the economy, although the bank only expects growth of about 1 to 1.5 per cent a year in the next three years. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe economy is healthier\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009The issue is we don\u2019t have the confidence and the vision to invest and we are not getting businesses investing in that next stage of growth.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the UK banks myFT Digest — delivered directly to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3093],"tags":[51,474,2499,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-244520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-personal-finance","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114810397996868279","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}