The Pension Board for City of Westminster Council met on Thursday 27 November 2025, to discuss the pension administration, projects and governance, the annual report and accounts, and the performance of the council's pension fund. The meeting was also scheduled to cover the initial outcome of the actuarial valuation.

Actuarial Valuation

The report pack included the initial results of the 2025 triennial actuarial valuation, as set out by Hymans Robertson, the pension fund actuary.

The key points noted in the report pack were:

• The funding level had risen to 140% from 128% in 2022, driven by expectations of higher inflation and a better investment outlook.
• The required investment return to be 100% funded was broadly unchanged.
• The likelihood of achieving the required return had increased to over 95% from 82% at the last valuation.

The report pack stated that the most significant change to the 2025 actuarial financial assumptions was a slight increase in the discount rate¹.

The report pack also noted that the next stage of the valuation would be to calculate the funding position and set a contribution rate for each employer within the fund.

Performance of the Council's Pension Fund

The report pack included a report on the performance of the council's pension fund investments to 30 September 2025. It stated that the total value of the fund's invested assets was circa £2,259.4m as at 30 September 2025, an increase of circa £88m since 30 June 2025 due to positive investment returns. The fund delivered a positive absolute return of 4.1% for the quarter to 30 September 2025, underperforming the fixed weight benchmark by 1.4%. Over the longer one-year and three-year periods to 30 September 2025, the fund delivered positive absolute returns of 9.4% and 11.1% per annum respectively, underperforming the fixed weight benchmark by 2.5% over the year and by 1.7% per annum over the three-year period. The report pack noted that Isio, the council's investment advisor, had changed Morgan Stanley's rating from green to amber, recommending a formal review of the mandate following consistently poor performance due to poor stock selection. The estimated funding level, following initial feedback from the actuary from the 31 March 2025 triennial valuation, was 140%.

The report pack also included the top five risks to the pension fund, as updated in September 2025:

1. Proposed reforms to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) following the Chancellor's Mansion House speech on 14 November 2024.
2. Volatility and negative sentiment in global investment markets following disruptive geopolitical and economic uncertainty.
3. Inadequate resources at the London CIV to monitor the implementation of investment strategy and address underachieving fund managers.
4. Price inflation being significantly more than anticipated in the actuarial assumptions.
5. Investment managers failing to achieve benchmark/outperform targets over the longer term.

Pension Fund Annual Report and Statement of Accounts

The report pack contained the Pension Fund Annual Report and Statement of Accounts 2024/25. The report stated that the Pension Fund's net assets were £2.095bn at 31 March 2025, a net increase in fund value of £81.8m, compared with an increase in value of £219.6m during the 2023/24 year. The Fund delivered a positive absolute return of 4.8% over the financial year to 31 March 2025, underperforming its fixed weight benchmark by 0.9% net of fees. The reported estimated funding level for the Westminster Pension Fund in the annual report had increased to 181% at 31 March 2025, compared with 163% at 31 March 2024. Fund officers were pleased that the relationship with the administration partner, Hampshire Pension Services (HPS), remained positive, with the monthly KPIs at 100%. During 2024/25, the investment management costs decreased by 32% to £14.4m.

Pension Administration Update

The report pack included a report on pension administration, which summarised the performance of Hampshire Pension Services (HPS) with the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the month of August 2025 through to October 2025. The report stated that KPI performance for each month was within each partnership report, with HPS reporting 100% compliance within the agreed KPI in each month. The Pension Board was scheduled to note that the work on hold reported was 323 cases as at the end of October 2025, and that the member portal uptake had again increased from 53.07% as at the end of July 2025 to 54.39 at the end of October 2025 across all. HPS received five compliments and one complaint in the reporting period August 2025 to October 2025. The complaint concerned the payment of a death grant, with a beneficiary claiming that they had not received the payment due to them and that someone had falsely represented as them to the Fund. The matter was continuing to be investigated. The report also stated that the fund had just received the common and conditional data scores for the Fund for 2025, and had again made improvements in both its common and conditional data. The Pension Committee had agreed to suspend the £1000 penalty charge for three years of poor-quality data, because smaller employers including Harris St Johns Wood and Westminster Academy which had at least demonstrated a year-on-year reduction in queries would be facing a fine that per member would cost them more than larger employers that had not made a consistent effort to reduce their queries. The City of Westminster Pension Fund was planning to hold a Pensions Annual General Meeting (AGM) on the 30th of March 2026, and would be working to recruit new members to the Pension Board to ensure that there were three employer and three member representatives on the Board.

LGPS Projects and Governance Update

The report pack included an update on the various projects and governance activities being undertaken by the Pensions and Payroll Team to improve the administration of the City of Westminster Pension Fund (COWPF) Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). The report stated that the McCloud project was on track to be delivered by August 2026, and that the Pension Dashboard Programme was on track for the statutory deadline. A draft Cybersecurity Policy for the Fund had been created, and was due to be reviewed during the quarter. A well-attended event had been run on 11th September 2025 to go through the 2025 Annual Benefit Statement, with approximately 170 attendees.

Other items

The agenda also included the following items:

• To note any changes to the membership.
• To receive declarations of interest by Members and Officers of any pecuniary interest or any significant interest in matters on this agenda.
• To approve the minutes of the Pension Board meeting on Monday 8 September 2025².