ao link
Twitter
Facebook
Linked In
Twitter
Facebook
Linked In

You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles

Welsh landlord becomes latest to leave Social Housing Pension Scheme

Wales & West Housing Group has become the latest housing association to quit the sector’s Social Housing Pension Scheme (SHPS). 

Linked InTwitterFacebookeCard
Picture: Getty
Picture: Getty
Sharelines

Wales & West Housing Group has become the latest housing association to quit the sector’s Social Housing Pension Scheme #UKhousing

According to an update on the website of TPT Retirement Solutions, the provider that manages SHPS, the Wales & West Housing Group Pension Plan was established with effect from 1 April 2022, following a bulk transfer from SHPS.

Wales & West Housing said that the main reason for the transfer was so that it could have more control over the costs and risks associated with its defined benefit pension promises and improve the security of members’ benefits. 

"For example, we are making an additional contribution to the new scheme to improve the funding level and therefore the security of members’ benefits," a spokesperson said. 

The landlord, which owns 12,000 homes across 15 local authority areas in Wales, appears to be the first association to leave the scheme since The Guinness Partnership left in July last year.

Guinness’ exit, which the landlord said would allow it to have greater influence over investments, followed the departure of a number of other large housing associations from SHPS in recent years, including Bromford, Clarion, Radian (now Abri) and Sanctuary.


READ MORE

One of country’s largest housing associations exits SHPSOne of country’s largest housing associations exits SHPS
SHPS valuation: deficit drops below £1bn for first time in more than 10 yearsSHPS valuation: deficit drops below £1bn for first time in more than 10 years
There is much to understand behind the headlines of the latest SHPS valuationThere is much to understand behind the headlines of the latest SHPS valuation

It comes shortly after Inside Housing revealed that the SHPS deficit had dropped below £1bn for the first time in over a decade.

Figures shared with the 400-plus housing organisations participating in the scheme revealed the deficit had fallen from £1.6bn in September 2020 to £930m as of 30 September 2021.

At the time, a spokesperson for TPT Retirement Solutions said: “The position has been helped by strong market returns, together with the protection afforded by the scheme’s defensive inflation hedging strategy.

“Higher expected future price inflation has pushed up liabilities, but also increased the value of our defensive assets held to hedge such a scenario. The investment and funding strategy of the scheme continues to be closely monitored.”

TPT Retirement Solutions declined to comment on Wales & West Housing leaving the scheme.

The spokesperson for Wales & West added: "We have worked closely with our advisers, First Actuarial, and TPT during the transfer process. The scheme remains within TPT and we look forward to continuing to work with them and First Actuarial in the future to set a strategy tailored to our circumstances.”

Sign up for our Wales newsletter

Sign up for our Wales newsletter
Linked InTwitterFacebookeCard
Add New Comment
You must be logged in to comment.
By continuing to browse this site you are agreeing to the use of cookies. Browsing is anonymised until you sign up. Click for more info.
Cookie Settings