Wales Pension Fund

About Us

The Wales Pension Partnership (WPP) was established in 2017. The WPP is a collaboration of the eight LGPS funds (Constituent Authorities) covering the whole of Wales and is one of eight national Local Government Pension pools.

We have a long, successful history of collaboration, including examples that pre-date the Government’s pooling initiative. We are proud of our unique identity as a Pool – our Constituent Authorities represent and span the entirety of Wales. Being democratically accountable means we provide the best of strong public sector governance and transparency.

Our operating model is designed to be flexible and deliver value for money. We appointed an external Operator and make use of external advisers to bring best of breed expertise to support the running of the Pool. The Operator is Link Fund Solutions and they have partnered with Russell Investments to manage the investments and assist in the reduction of investment management costs for all the Constituent Authorities.

We have a clear vision and are in control of the pace we take to ensure we meet our goals.

Latest Notices

Latest News

Wednesday 15 February 2023

Signatory to the UK Stewardship Code

We are delighted to announce that the Wales Pension Partnership (WPP) remains as a signatory to the UK Stewardship Code.

https://www.frc.org.uk/investors/uk-stewardship-code/uk-stewardship-code-signatories

The 2020 UK Stewardship Code sets a high bar for stewardship, a standard which the Wales Pension Partnership (WPP) seeks to meet through its approach to responsible investment (RI). We are therefore delighted to have retained our signatory status for 2022.

Our focus for the year has been one of consolidation, reviewing our RI policies and building on our processes to ensure our pooling arrangement can better meet the needs of our beneficiaries. This year has seen more focus placed on the oversight and challenge of our providers, including undertaking deep dives into the climate and environmental, social & governance risks within our Sub-Funds. On our behalf, Robeco has voted on over 10,500 different resolutions and undertaken 280 individual company engagements. Our own focus on climate change is strongly reflected in a number of Robeco’s engagement themes and we continue to seek areas where we believe we support real-world change.

We recognise that there is still much more to do and, over the last 12 months, have appointed a dedicated RI resource to help us build on our RI commitments and meet the demands of stakeholders. We have also developed a Sustainable Active Equity strategy and a range of Private Markets funds, where consideration of stewardship and climate risk has been a focal point. We are also focusing effort on evaluating and communicating the progress the WPP has helped make on climate change over recent years.

We remain proud of our identity as a pool, where we will continue to evolve in collaboration with all eight Constituent Authorities within Wales – and the members of their pension schemes – to be effective stewards of their assets.

Wales Pension Partnership appoints Schroders Capital

The Wales Pension Partnership (WPP) today announces the latest in its series of appointments to facilitate implementation of its Pooled Private Markets investment solutions.

Schroders Capital will develop the WPP pooled private equity investment programme, to meet Constituent Authorities’ needs in the asset class.

The appointment follows a rigorous procurement process run by the WPP with investment consultancy firm bfinance. The development will enable efficient and effective access to an illiquid asset class that has been a holding for LGPS funds for many years but that poses challenges in terms of access, cost and governance for single pension fund investors until scale is achieved.

Chris Moore, Director of Corporate Services at Carmarthenshire County Council (Host Authority for the WPP):

“Private Equity has been an important holding for the WPP Constituent Authorities but has historically been challenging to access in a cost effective manner. Pooling offers the opportunity to address this. We look forward to working with our newly appointed partners to meet this challenge and deliver efficient, effective and impactful Private Equity investment for the long term.”