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The two weeks since Rachel Reeves delivered her first UK Budget as chancellor have been pretty downbeat. Businesses have griped over her tax rises, gilt yields have nudged up and the election of the tariff-loving Donald Trump in America has further clouded the UK’s growth outlook. As part of the annual Mansion House speech on Thursday evening, she tried to lift the mood by unveiling plans to boost Britain’s investment in productive assets with capital from the country’s vast pension funds.

Britain’s retirement pot — estimated at around £3tn in assets — is one of the world’s largest, but it is also one of the most fragmented. Its 8,000-plus funds include defined benefit schemes (which provide a specified income), defined contribution schemes (which produce incomes based on individuals’ investments), and the public sector’s Local Government Pension Scheme. Together, they allocate only 4.4 per cent to UK equities, and around 6 per cent to private equity and infrastructure assets — the types of investment that, if higher, would prop up Britain’s economic growth and DC savers’ returns.

The chancellor’s strategy builds on her predecessor Jeremy Hunt’s own Mansion House reforms in 2023. Reeves plans to expedite the consolidation of Britain’s numerous pension pots, mirroring superfunds in Australia and Canada. She wants to force the existing 86 LGPS funds to merge into eight pools. Right now, less than half of their £400bn in assets are held in larger pools. She also has plans to impose minimum size requirements on multiemployer DC schemes, which are forecast to manage £800bn in assets by the end of the decade. The government reckons both measures could unlock around £80bn to invest in start-ups and infrastructure projects.

Consolidation makes sense. Larger funds can lower their unit costs by saving on the fees and bureaucracy that come with managing smaller pots. They can make chunkier investments, and better manage the risk associated with higher-yielding assets such as in infrastructure, innovative businesses and private markets.

Still, the chancellor’s plans are no guarantee that productive pension investments in the UK will actually increase. Canadian public sector pensions have even lower home bias than LGPS, according to New Financial, a think-tank. Reeves has also rightly ruled out mandating funds to make domestic investments. After all, trustees must have the flexibility to act in the interests of their beneficiaries. The LGPS’s DB schemes have specific liabilities to meet.

To shift the dial, fund managers will need to be confident that there are decent returns to be had in the UK. For that, investors need to see how the government’s planning reforms, industrial strategy and initiatives to raise public investment in green energy and infrastructure shape up. Targeted tax reliefs could also play a role.

The funds also need to be professionally run, with the right risk controls in place to protect savers’ money and oversight from the authorities. Larger funds should help to attract more highly skilled portfolio managers. When it comes to pooling LGPS in particular, input from local authorities will remain important to channel investment into budding regional start-ups and fruitful infrastructure projects. Finally, an emphasis on consolidation should not overlook the importance of raising contributions to pension pots over time, too. Australia has been particularly successful at doing this.

The success of Reeves’ proposal will ultimately hinge on how well the rest of her growth strategy buoys the mood of fund managers about Britain’s prospects. But pooling more of the country’s pension arsenal frees up cash for productive investments. With effective implementation, that should secure better returns for savers, too.

Pharrell Williams on the True American Dream: “It’s About Doing What You Love”

Grammy-winning artist and philanthropist Pharrell Williams is urging Americans to redefine what they see as the “American Dream.” In a powerful speech at the Web Summit in Lisbon, he challenged society’s obsession with wealth and encouraged a shift towards career fulfillment, claiming that the dream isn’t about amassing wealth but about finding joy in one’s work.

The American Dream: Beyond Wealth and Status

Williams, a Virginia native, touched on the generational perspective that success is measured by financial prosperity. “In my country, we are raised to think about how to make the most money because our parents thought that way,” Williams explained. “They had this false sense of what the American Dream is or should be.”

With recent surveys showing that 47% of Americans believe the dream is either out of reach or simply a myth, Williams’ perspective reflects a growing sentiment that fulfillment, not finances, is the true measure of success. “The American Dream is not about making the most money,” Williams argued. “It should be about spending the most time doing something that you love.”

A 2021 YouGov survey revealed that American teens are increasingly interested in careers driven by passion, such as becoming a vlogger, YouTuber, or professional streamer. This shift, Williams noted, is at odds with previous generations’ ambitions, which often leaned towards traditional high-paying jobs like doctors and lawyers. Williams acknowledged the pressure many young people face to meet these expectations but urged them to follow their own passions, even if it means changing paths.

A Shift in Career Aspirations

Williams drew attention to the disconnect between parents’ career expectations for their children and young people’s evolving dreams. “Your parents told you they wanted you to be a doctor or a lawyer,” he said, recognizing that some individuals may find happiness in these roles. However, many discover that traditional career paths don’t align with their passions and ultimately decide to change direction.

Reflecting on the common pursuit of financially stable careers that may not bring happiness, Williams added, “The vast majority, they go after it and they don’t get it. And then they end up working somewhere they hate because it’s the next best thing financially.” He explained that prioritizing financial gain often results in unfulfilling work, which is why he believes it’s essential to focus on work that truly resonates with one’s interests.

Pharrell encourages young people to consider whether they would pursue a particular field if money were no object. “If you think about something that you love so much, that if you could snap your fingers right now and you’d never make any money but all your bills were paid—would you do it?” he asked the audience. His message is clear: the American Dream should be about achieving personal happiness and purpose, rather than strictly financial success.

The Role of Charity and Creating Opportunities

Williams’ advocacy for fulfillment over wealth isn’t just theoretical; he actively works to create opportunities for others through his charitable foundations, Yellow and Black Ambition. Yellow is focused on improving educational equity, and Black Ambition is dedicated to reducing the wealth inequality gap by supporting entrepreneurship. His charitable work reflects his philosophy on success—one that values equal opportunity and personal growth over traditional metrics of wealth.

Williams emphasized that the key to a fulfilling career doesn’t necessarily lie in achieving a “dream job” in the conventional sense but finding a way to engage with something one loves, even if it’s a supporting role. “If a person’s ideal job was to be a professional footballer but they weren’t suited to it, they could still find fulfillment as a coach, cameraman, or even a team coach driver,” he suggested. By aligning a career with one’s passion, Williams argues that people will find greater happiness and motivation in their work. “If you can find a vocation around something that you love, you now have a dream job. You will be the first one there and you’ll be the last one to leave.”

Redefining Success for Future Generations

In closing, Williams shared his belief that parents and society should encourage children to pursue work they love, rather than pushing them towards lucrative but potentially unfulfilling careers. “To me, that is what we should be telling our children—that is the way that we should be leading society—for people to do what they love.”

By focusing on fulfillment, Williams believes the next generation can redefine the American Dream to be one that values personal happiness and meaningful work. His call to action is clear: the true dream isn’t about wealth; it’s about living a life that brings joy and purpose. As Americans navigate shifting societal expectations and economic challenges, Williams’ perspective serves as a reminder that the essence of success lies not in money, but in the satisfaction of doing what one loves.

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The author is an independent analyst and a contributing editor of the Financial Times

With the third-largest funded pension system in the world, the UK is financial asset-rich. But it is also investment poor. Despite £2.9tn of pension assets, the level of actual money put to work in areas like infrastructure, building and research and development is woeful.

A measure of this — the investment-to-GDP ratio — averaged only 19 per cent in the 40 years to 2019, the lowest in the G7, according to the National Infrastructure Commission.

As chancellor, Rachel Reeves has recognised the problem. But she intends to tackle it not by seeking to mandate pensions to invest more into the UK through legislation. Instead, she’s trying to remove barriers to investment including those that derive from operating subscale funds.

Reeves intends to develop eight pension “megafunds” from the sprawling Local Government Pension Scheme. The umbrella body for 86 individual schemes, LGPS is the largest funded pension scheme in the country and the sixth largest in the world, with assets under management estimated by consultancy Isio of around £400bn. Embarrassingly though, it surrenders many of its economies of scale through the way it is organised.

Assets are managed by the different funds with strategic asset allocations directed by individual boards of elected local government councillors. Furthermore, each administering authority appoints its own lawyers, actuaries, consultants and investment managers. The arrangement pays out around £1.7bn in fees each year, most of it to UK investment managers.

Consolidating assets into megafunds sounds like an obvious step forward. So obvious that it has been tried before. The previous government sought to harness LGPS funds’ collective economies of scale by obliging them to join eight pools — firms that the pension funds themselves would own, and which would act to build scale and purchasing power for their members.

The pooling of the companies was envisaged — among other things — as a way to strike better fee deals and provide centralised external investment manager oversight. But according to a government consultation, less than half of assets have so far been pooled. And the services that these companies offer vary meaningfully in the degree of management provided.

At one end of the spectrum, the London Collective Investment Scheme operates something akin to a curated fund supermarket. London boroughs can switch between 10 different global equity funds, four different diversified growth multi-asset funds and six different bond funds. Its largest infrastructure fund is a mere £545mn in size.

At the other end of the spectrum is the model practised by Local Pensions Partnership Investments for its local authority clients. This involves the total delegation of asset management to LPPI based on the strategic asset allocation choices made by clients, or SAAs. It also manages assets for GLIL Infrastructure, a firm that originates and manages direct infrastructure investments for clients within and beyond the local authority world.

Out of these Byzantine arrangements have come investment returns sufficient to generate a current funding surplus of around £100bn, according to Steve Simkins, a partner at Isio. We await details on how the megafunds would differ from pools — but why the change given this?

Investment performance is overwhelmingly determined by asset allocation choices. And it appears unlikely that councillors will be stripped of their tasks in these choices without legal responsibility for the councils’ share of the liabilities also being removed.

There has been no whisper around any plans to consolidate liabilities. And so the broad shape and dispersion of investment performance returns across LGPS funds looks likely to continue, even if the 86 administering authorities are clients of megafunds rather than managers of funds.

But secondary to strategic asset allocation choices in determining fund performance are fees. Megafunds are very likely to deliver stronger relative returns over the long run because they have the scale to internalise management, which costs much less. This is especially true when it comes to private market assets.

Beyond reducing costs, the real driver of this change is the removal of barriers to greater investment in private market assets. LGPS allocations to infrastructure, private equity and real estate are already substantial at 23 per cent of assets. But this is low compared with the median 42 per cent allocation made by Canada’s so-called Maple-8 defined-benefit public sector pension funds.

Should the new LGPS megafunds increase allocation to private assets? The case is certainly helped by lower fees. According to CEM Benchmarking, allocations to internally managed real estate and private equity handsomely outperformed externally managed allocations after taking into account fees for the period 1992-2020.

From the government’s perspective, greater allocation would be helpful. While infrastructure investment managers mutter about the lack of a pipeline of investable opportunities, there may be some large ones coming. The National Infrastructure Commission estimates that private sector investment needs to increase from around £30bn-£40bn over the past decade to £40bn-£50bn in the 2030s and 2040s. Reducing the barriers to cost-effective investment in this sector should help pension funds, but also help the economy.

THE country’s swankiest jacket potato is being given away completely free of charge this month.

Topped with saffron butter-infused lobster tail and premium caviar, the dish is anything but simple.

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The not-so-humble spud even comes doused in fresh truffle shaving, grated Gruyére cheese and edible gold leaf.

The dish would usually set you back a whopping £50.

Despite its hefty price tag however, the baked potato can be enjoyed completely free of charge this month if you head down to Hull bingo hall.

The limited edition dish is available at Mecca Bingo on Clough Road between midday and 2pm on Wednesday, 20 November.

Ben Newman who goes by the name Spudman, and who has more than 5 million followers on social media, is the culinary wizard behind the spud.

Diners’ fury as posh London restaurant sells scrambled eggs on toast for £58

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Diner were left fuming after discovering a posh London restaurant selling scrambled eggs on toast for £58.

HIDE in Mayfair is a Michelin-star restaurant which has caused a stir recently for its breakfast menu prices.

The customers were appalled to learn that the cost of scrambled eggs on toast might set them back a whopping £58.

The breakfast dish costs £36 a serving but the price rises even further to £58 if adding white truffle.

White truffles are known to be an extravagant food with one of the highest price tags.

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The expensive fungi are difficult to grow and take years to cultivate, making them scarce and valuable.

He told Hull Live: “It’s been amazing to see so many people share in the love of a great jack pot, and now, thanks to Mecca Bingo, it’s a chance for everyone to enjoy a taste of something decadent and jackpot worthy – on the house!”

Hull will be his first stop on a national tour before the chef heads to Stevenage and Blackpool.

Tom Sharpe, manager of culinary innovation at Mecca Bingo added: “As the OG of amazing jackpots, at Mecca Bingo, all our players are always in with the chance of hitting the jackpot, and the ‘Jackpot Jack Pot’, takes that excitement one step further.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Spudman on this luxurious new recipe that combines the ultimate comfort food with the excitement of a jackpot win!’’

This comes as 70 per cent of Brits said they consider potatoes to be one of their favourite foods in winter.

More than half of those polled also said they often seek more “elevated” versions of the baked potato, according to research by Mecca Bingo.

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AN ABANDONED UK airport is set to reopen for its first event in over a decade in a “last hurrah” before its total overhaul.

The closed airport confirmed plans to host its first international airshow in over a decade next summer.

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A two-day event will be held at Manston Airport as a “last hurrah” for the old runway before it is transformed into an international hub.

Thanet Airfield, which closed in 2014, was cleared to reopen after successfully overcoming a legal challenge earlier this year.

RiverOak Strategic Partners, the company that owns the airfield, announced plans to invest £800million into the site.

Bosses added that the injection of funds will help restore the airport as a commercially successful travel hub for passengers.

However, the extensive renovations needed to transform the site are not expected to begin until early 2026, with completion projected by early 2028.

Tony Freudmann, director at RiverOak, said the airshow, the first at the site since 2013, is a great opportunity for people to see the airport for the last time before it is transformed.

He told Kent Online: “The air show will be the last hurrah for the old airport as it is now, that is how we see it anyway.”

The details of the upcoming Manston International Airshow have yet to be revealed, but aviation enthusiasts will be excited to know that the Belgium-based Bronco Demo Team OV-10B will be featured in the lineup.

The skilled group of pilots are renowned for their performances with the North American OV-10 Bronco – a 1960s aircraft designed for counter-insurgency combat.

Mr Freudmann added: “This will be the first big air show at the airport since 2013.

“People should expect lots and lots of activities and aircraft flying in and out.”

In a post shared online, the external organisers of the show added: “We are thrilled to be able to start sharing with you what will be a spectacular event for Kent a show that we have been working on as a team since August.

“Our sincere thanks must be extended to RiverOak Strategic Partners and Visit Thanet for their support in us being able to launch such an incredibly high-profile show in the Garden of England.”

The Manston International Airshow will take place at Thanet Airfield on August 16 and 17.

It comes after a discontinued UK airport that once offered budget flights to Spain and Cyprus has revealed plans to re-open after a two-year closure.

Doncaster Sheffield Airport shut in 2022 after Wizz Air confirmed it would terminate the majority of its flights from the airport.

The airport, also known as the Robin Hood Airport, is located in Finningley near Doncaster and previously served millions of travellers heading to holiday destinations.

It opened to passengers in 2005 and was one of only two commercial international airports in Yorkshire.

The airport’s reopening is expected to delight nearby residents, who will be eager to once again use the popular travel hub.

Mayor Ros Jones stated that she intends to keep “councillors, residents, and businesses updated” as plans progress to reopen Doncaster Sheffield Airport.

She added: “The procurement of an operator is in its final stages of due diligence, we have regular meetings with investors, businesses and airlines.

“We have submitted a Statement of Need to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in relation to re-establishing our airspace, this will soon be publicly available via the CAA website, I cannot emphasise enough the importance of retaining our airspace, our MPs continue to engage with the Aviation Minister in relation to this.”

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

“The DNA of entrepreneurs is made up of dozens of interlocking variables,” says HSBC in a Thursday report. If by variables the bank means A, C, G and T, that specific conclusion is unassailable.

What it doesn’t do, however, is fulfill HSBC’s stated goal of shining “a brighter light onto what makes a global entrepreneur so special”.

For that, its Global Private Banking division hired Ipsos UK to interview 1,800 wealthy business owners. These manhours were dedicated to uncovering “key findings” such as “entrepreneurs are very optimistic” even as they “also worry about the state of the world”. 

There is at least one actual surprise, however. The UK, despite all the doom and gloom, is still a “top-three global destination for wealthy business owners” next to Switzerland and the US. 

The UK, HSBC writes, is “as popular a destination as the US, France or Singapore for business owners contemplating a transfer of some or all of their personal wealth”.

In fact, almost 60 per cent of the UK entrepreneurs the bank interviewed are “optimistic” that their personal wealth “will grow in future” — more than anywhere else.

On first glance, this seems to be a rather shocking rebuke to the headlines about chancellor Rachel Reeves’ tax-raising, apparently entrepreneur–enraging Budget.

Alas, Ipsos finished conducting its quantitative fieldwork and its interviews three and five months before the Budget was released.

It’s possible that what really makes UK entrepreneurs special is their ability to complain to the press without actually changing their views. In that case, the UK may still have its spot near the top of the wealth-magnet rankings. Either way, we sympathise with Ipsos and HSBC. Timely reporting is hard.