Issue - meetings

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of Urgent Business.  (Late items of Urgent Business will be considered under the agenda item where they appear. New items of Urgent Business will be dealt with under item 12 below).

Prior to the start of the meeting, the Committee were informed that the group Wood Green Friends of the Earth sought to address them with regard to divestment. As the formal procedure rules had not been followed, the Chair sought the Committee’s permission as to whether to allow the leader of the group to make representations on behalf of the group to the Committee. The Committee unanimously agreed to allow the group to address them.

Quentin Given, on behalf of Wood Green Friends of the Earth, spoke to the Committee. It was raised, that:

·         The number of natural disasters were increasing and this was because of the continual usage of fossil fuel. Governments were not giving the issue the urgency nor the action it was due and the group wanted to see Haringey Council’s Pension Committee and Board make a commitment to complete divestment from fossil fuel. It was noted that other Councils had made similar commitments and were moving towards alternative investments which the group claimed were performing far better;

·         The group wanted the Committee to go beyond its 5% commitment to investing in renewable energy and asked it to timetable a report for the next meeting setting out the steps moving towards divestment in fossil fuel; and

·         The group were mindful of the reality of the time needed to create reports and to make decisions on such issues but asked the Committee to make a decision as soon as it was able to, with regard to the issues raised above.

The Chair thanked Quentin Given for his speech and reassured the group that the Committee shared their concern on the impacts of fossil fuel. The Chair noted that it was his intention to liaise with other Pension Chairs on the issue of a unified and collective commitment to future divestment.

On behalf of Haringey Council, Thomas Skeen, Head of Pensions, addressed the Committee and Board on this topic and noted this the issue of the Fund’s Equity Strategy had only recently been addressed at a previous meeting in March 2018 and there were good reasons why the changes made at this time were done. It is not good practice to make regular changes to the Fund’s Equity Strategy within short time periods. This could potentially damage the fund’s reputation, with participating employers questioning the decisions taken by the Committee, and might affect their contributions to the Fund. Further, the Committee had already invested £276m in a low carbon fund. With regard to when the issues raised by the group could next be timetabled, it was noted that due to time-consuming items on future agendas it was unlikely that this would happen before March 2019.

The Fund’s Investment Consultant, Steve Turner, of Mercer, also addressed the Committee. The approach that Haringey Council’s Pension Committee had taken over the past 4 years had been proactive in committing to a renewable energy allocation of 5%, when other Local Government Pension Schemes (LGPS) had yet to make such commitments. The Committee had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 201

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of Urgent Business.  (Late items of Urgent Business will be considered under the agenda item where they appear. New items of Urgent Business will be dealt with under item 15 below).

There were no items of urgent business.