Agenda and minutes

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Contact: Sean O'Neill  01225 395090

Items
No. Item

24.

EMERGENCY EVACUATION PROCEDURE

The Chair will draw attention to the emergency evacuation procedure as set out under Note 9.

 

Minutes:

The Democratic Services Officer advised the meeting of the procedure.

25.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

At this point in the meeting declarations of interest are received from Members in any of the agenda items under consideration at the meeting. Members are asked to complete the green interest forms circulated to groups in their pre-meetings (which will be announced at the Council Meeting) to indicate:

(a) The agenda item number in which they have an interest to declare.

(b) The nature of their interest.

(c) Whether their interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest or an other interest,  (as defined in Part 2, A and B of the Code of Conduct and Rules for Registration of Interests)

Any Member who needs to clarify any matters relating to the declaration of interests is recommended to seek advice from the Council’s Monitoring Officer or a member of his staff before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

Minutes:

There were none.

26.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND SUBSTITUTIONS

To receive any declarations from Members of the Committee and Officers of personal/prejudicial interests in respect of matters for consideration at this meeting, together with their statements on the nature of any such interest declared.

 

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Councillor Mary Blatchford.

27.

TO ANNOUNCE ANY URGENT BUSINESS AGREED BY THE CHAIR

Minutes:

There was none.

28.

ITEMS FROM THE PUBLIC - TO RECEIVE DEPUTATIONS, STATEMENTS, PETITIONS OR QUESTIONS

Minutes:

There were none.

29.

ITEMS FROM COUNCILLORS AND CO-OPTED AND ADDED MEMBERS

To deal with any petitions or questions from Councillors and, where appropriate, co-opted and added members.

 

Minutes:

There were none.

30.

MINUTES: 10 SEPTEMBER 2018 pdf icon PDF 67 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The public and exempt minutes of the meeting of 10 September 2018 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

31.

REVIEW OF INVESTMENT PERFORMANCE FOR PERIODS ENDING 30 SEPTEMBER 2018 pdf icon PDF 68 KB

Appendices 2 and 4 to follow.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Assistant Investments Manager presented the report and summarised the key information.

 

Mr Turner presented the Mercer Performance Monitoring Report. He drew attention to Unigestion’s stellar outperformance during the period; they had made excellent returns in a falling market because their low volatility approach favours stocks that did well in that environment.

 

Before considering the Mercer Risk Management Framework Quarterly Monitoring Report, the Panel, having been satisfied that the public interest would be better served by not disclosing relevant information, RESOLVED, in accordance with section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, that the public should be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of this report, and that the reporting of this part of the meeting should be prevented, because of the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined by paragraph 3 of Part I of Schedule 12A of the Act as amended.

 

After the Panel had returned to open session, Mr Turner presented three Mercer papers: “Is there a Bear Market on the Horizon?”, “Political Risk: ‘Big Things’ lie ahead” and “From QE to QT”.

 

Members noted Mercer’s view that there would be a higher volatility environment for some time. The Head of Business, Finance and Pensions agreed that the political dynamics of an increase in nationalism and populism were likely to cause high volatility into the next valuation, and it would be difficult to assess the likely impact on economic growth. Incorporating the right balance between investment growth and liquidity into the strategy would be a challenge.

 

The Chair asked how the review of the investment strategy would be co-ordinated with the transition to Brunel. The Investments Manager replied that the review of strategy will have to take into account the timeline of the Brunel transition. The new strategy would take some time to implement. If a suitable Brunel portfolio did not exist to enable the Fund to implement part of its strategy, she would want to start discussions with them as soon as possible.

 

A Member said that the Panel had noted that sometimes the approach of one manager complemented that of another. She wondered how that kind of linkage could be implemented through Brunel. The Investments Manager replied that this can be done through Brunel; their proposed UK equities portfolio, for example, contains managers of quite contrasting styles. Brunel can tweak the allocation between the different managers in a portfolio depending on their view of the market and how each managers style will perform in that environment; this is an important means by which pooling can add value over the longer term.

 

RESOLVED to note the information as set out in the reports.

32.

DIVERSIFIED GROWTH FUNDS UPDATE pdf icon PDF 20 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Panel, having been satisfied that the public interest would be better served by not disclosing relevant information, RESOLVED, in accordance with section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, that the public should be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of this item, and that the reporting of this part of the meeting should be prevented, because of the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined by paragraph 3 of Part I of Schedule 12A of the Act as amended.

 

After discussion the Panel RESOLVED to approve the officer recommendations with amendments.

33.

CASH MANAGEMENT - EXCHANGE-TRADED FUND SOLUTION pdf icon PDF 20 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Panel, having been satisfied that the public interest would be better served by not disclosing relevant information, RESOLVED, in accordance with section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, that the public should be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of this item, and that the reporting of this part of the meeting should be prevented, because of the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined by paragraph 3 of Part I of Schedule 12A of the Act as amended.

 

After discussion the Panel RESOLVED to approve the officers’ recommendations.

 

34.

UPDATE ON POOLING OF ASSETS pdf icon PDF 57 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Investments Manager presented the report.

 

Before considering the appendices the Panel, having been satisfied that the public interest would be better served by not disclosing relevant information, RESOLVED, in accordance with section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, that the public should be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of this item, and that the reporting of this part of the meeting should be prevented, because of the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined by paragraph 3 of Part I of Schedule 12A of the Act as amended.

 

After discussion the Panel RESOLVED to note:

 

1.  the progress made on the pooling of assets;

 

2.  the project plan for the transition of assets.

35.

WORKPLAN pdf icon PDF 60 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED to note the Panel workplan to be included in the Committee papers.