The 88 Local Government Pension Schemes (LGPS) in England and Wales are merging their investment activities. This was first heralded in a consultation in May 2014 (see our coverage from the time here).  Eight pools submitted pooling proposals in July 2016 (details in the table below). The proposals are important for real estate as an asset class as the various LGPS are major investors. However pooling real estate is a complex and potentially costly process which may well erode the potential cost savings that might come with scale. Larger pools may also be able to make allocations to riskier assets and to overseas assets. Although the returns might be higher these strategies too are likely to be more costly in absolute fee terms. The process of implementing pooling for real estate is likely to be significantly more complex than for some other asset classes.

Merger of the Scottish LGPS pools is now also under discussion