FUTURE
CONFERENCES
Programme
09.30
Registration & Tea/Coffee
10.00
Session 1: Setting Up for Success - The New Pool-Fund Partnership
From April, the relationship between pools and funds changes fundamentally. This session explores how to build alignment from day one without losing sight of individual fund priorities. We'll explore:
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How pools will provide asset allocation frameworks while respecting fund autonomy
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Understanding each other's constraints, responsibilities, and pressures: governance standards, decision-making strategies and communication frameworks
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Where will potential tensions emerge, and strategies to navigate them constructively
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Setting realistic expectations: what pools can deliver and what funds should expect
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Managing the transition of illiquid assets
Speakers:
11.15
Tea/Coffee
11.45
Session 2: Collaboration in Action - Asset Classes with the Most Potential
Where should LGPS funds and pools be focusing their attention? This session examines the asset classes showing the strongest potential for growth and returns in the current environment. We'll discuss:
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Which asset classes are attracting increased LGPS allocation and why
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Emerging opportunities: infrastructure, private debt, forestry, renewable energy, and real assets
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Risk-adjusted returns: where's the value in today's market environment?
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How pool investment teams are building expertise in high-growth areas
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Scale advantages: where pooling creates better access and terms
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Which opportunities are realistic for early implementation vs. longer-term development?
Speakers:
Chief Economist
Fathom Consulting
Investing in a rapidly evolving macro environment
The period since the pandemic has been both challenging and fascinating in equal measure. We have moved swiftly from state-sponsored lockdowns through double-digit inflation to soaring interest rates, and more recently the re-imposition by a new US administration of 1930s style trade tariffs. To cap it all, substantial reforms to the structure of the LGPS are just weeks away. In his presentation, Andrew will consider how investors might allocate their assets in this uncertain world.
Global Head of Investor Relations
New Forests
Building Resilient LGPS Portfolios: Opportunities in Natural Capital
Natural capital is rapidly emerging as a strategic component of institutional portfolios, driven by climate policy, evolving nature-related disclosures, and growing investor recognition of the financial materiality of ecosystems. As global markets increasingly integrate nature and climate considerations, asset classes such as forestry, biodiversity projects, regenerative agriculture, and carbon markets are shifting from niche allocations to mainstream investment opportunities. For LGPS funds, this evolution is particularly relevant. Rising demand, increasing regulatory expectations, and the need for resilient, inflation-linked returns position natural capital as a compelling fit within long-term pension strategies. The session explores the market forces behind natural capital’s momentum, the capabilities investors are building to assess these opportunities, and the practical pathways for LGPS pools to access, scale, and steward nature-based investments in line with their fiduciary and sustainability objectives.
Deputy CEO and Director of Business Development
Scientific Portfolio
Climate equity investing: a pragmatic view on alignment and risk
This session offers a research-rooted perspective on climate equity investing, covering both climate alignment and climate risk through a common lens: what is robust, measurable, and scalable in real-world portfolio analysis and index construction. On the alignment side, recent research highlights a persistent ambition-credibility gap in several critical sectors: corporate decarbonisation targets are not consistently supported by capital expenditure plans. This raises a practical challenge for investors seeking strictly “aligned” equity exposure. The presentation discusses why some alignment metrics can be dominated by allocation effects rather than real-economy change, and why index methodologies may need to rely on simpler, more transparent signals (absolute emissions, disclosed targets), rather than assuming full credibility of long-dated transition pathways. On the risk side, the talk reviews evidence that transition risk is measurable in equity market prices and that physical climate risk can be assessed meaningfully at the portfolio level via a GDP-based approach. The usual coverage and scalability constraints often faced by bottom-up physical risk approaches that rely on granular asset-level data can be overcome in the context of diversified equity indices by a pragmatic top-down framework for measuring and mitigating physical climate risk.
13.25
Lunch
14.15
Session 3: Managing Competing Pressures - ESG, Local Investment, and Government Expectations
Pools face the challenge of balancing investment performance with ESG integration, local investment demands and growing Government scrutiny.
We'll tackle:
ESG Strategy Integration:
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How pools manage varying ESG requirements across their fund membership
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Building ESG frameworks that satisfy both funds and government expectations
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Integrating ESG without sacrificing returns—the evidence and the approach
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Local Investment Realities:
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Government pressure vs. fiduciary duty: how pools navigate this tension
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Supporting fund’s local investment ambitions while maintaining performance standards
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Practical collaboration: what works when funds want local impact and pools need scale
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Setting boundaries: when and how can pools manage expectations?
Managing Government Expectations:
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Understanding what government actually expects from pools post-April
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Communicating pool performance and progress to multiple stakeholders
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Balancing political pressure with investment discipline
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How can funds support pools in managing external pressures?
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Where does independent advice fit in this more complex environment?
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Speakers:
Assistant Executive Director - Local Investments and Property
Greater Manchester Pension Fund
15.30
Close of Conference & Drinks Reception
Please note: Timings and session topics are subject to change. We will keep you updated with any changes to the schedule as soon as possible.
Cost
The conference is by invitation only for pension funds and other institutional investors and we welcome new attendees from these investors. Therefore if you are not already receiving an invitation please contact us. A limited number of Complimentary invitations are available to genuine pension fund representatives (executives and trustees) and other approved institutional investors. However, to ensure we have room for as many funds as possible, we have to limit free places to 3 attendees per approved organisation thereafter a reduced rate fee is payable per delegate. Furthermore, SPS always reserves the right of admission (free or paid) and our decision is final.
Venue
Farmers and Fletchers in the City
3 Cloth St,
London
EC1A 7LD
Tel: 020 7600 2064
Farmers and Fletchers is 1 minute from Barbican tube station, 5 minutes from St.Paul’s tube station
and very convenient for the new Farringdon Crossrail link.
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