Agenda and draft minutes

The Chair will draw attention to the emergency evacuation procedure as set out under Note 5.

The Democratic Services Officer drew attention to the Emergency Evacuation Procedure.

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 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 4.4 Appendix 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 Officeror a member of his staff before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

There were none.

Jackie Peel (Independent Member) had given her apologies to the Panel.

Councillor Chris Dando and John Finch (Independent Member) attended the meeting virtually via Teams.

There was none.

There were none.

There were none.

The Panel RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 26th November 2024 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

This paper reports on the performance of the individual portfolios and seeks to update the Panel on routine aspects of the Fund’s investments. The report contains performance statistics for periods ending 31 December 2024.

The Senior Investments Officer introduced the report to the Panel and highlighted the following points.

·  The Fund’s assets were £5,899m on 31 December 2024 and delivered a net investment return of -1.8% over the quarter, lagging the 3.0% return for the strategic benchmark.

·  Currency hedging had a negative impact on overall returns given the strong movements in currencies during the quarter.

·  The estimated funding level stood at 106% as of 31 December 2024 (c. £284m surplus).

·  Returns from Brunel’s listed portfolios were positive with some notable double-digit performances from Global High Alpha, Global Sustainable Equities and the Passive Developed Equities Paris Aligned portfolios, however relative returns were in line with or behind benchmark.

·  Brunel’s listed market portfolios all recorded positive absolute performances, but in a familiar theme to previous quarters, relative performance was held back due to stock selection and the continued dominance of the US technology stocks.

·  During the period the Fund rebalanced its equity overweight down by 5% bringing the overall equity allocation down to c. 45%, which is within the rebalancing range set out in the Investment Strategy Statement. Due to equity market gains post quarter-end the Fund’s allocation to equities has drifted above the upper bound of its rebalancing range. Officers will rebalance the portfolio accordingly and update Panel at its next meeting.

The Investments Manager addressed the Panel to provide them with a Local Impact update.

·  During the quarter, £4m was drawn down from the Fund’s commitment to Wessex Gardens. Capital will be used to fund a solar construction asset in Oxfordshire. This takes capital deployed to £40m of a total figure of £50m committed.

·  The Fund received its first capital call from the Octopus Affordable Housing Fund. £5m in capital to be used for completion and handover of three separate Affordable Housing schemes in Exeter, Essex and the South-East of England.

·  SME Funding – The Fund agreed a commitment of £50m to an SME funding strategy following consultation with Mercer. Completion of the manager appointment and legal review expected over the next quarter. The Fund has negotiated a significant discount to the prospective managers standard fee terms.

Councillor Crossley asked if investment was also planned for wind turbines, as whilst acknowledging the benefits of solar panels they do result in a loss of land which could be used for food production.

The Investments Manager replied that the Wessex Gardens vehicle is predominantly land based solar. He added that through other infrastructure allocations they do have investment in wind turbines alongside other renewables.

The Head of Pensions added that having visited one of the sites he was aware that discussions had taken place for potential new solar panels to be slightly elevated to allow for sheep to graze the land. He said that he could not say for definite at this point whether that design would be in place for the site mentioned.

Steve Turner, Mercer addressed the Panel and highlighted the following areas from their report.

·  Q4 was an unusual period in which the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 45.

The Funding and Risk Management Group (FRMG) is responsible for agreeing the operational aspects relating to the Fund’s Risk Management Framework (RMF) thereby ensuring that strategic objectives continue to be met.

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

The Panel RESOLVED to note the performance of each of the underlying RMF strategies and current collateral position as set out in Exempt Appendix 1.

This report sets out the forward agenda for the Panel for 2025/26. It is provisional as the Panel will respond to issues as they arise and as work is delegated from the Committee.

The Group Manager for Funding, Investment & Risk introduced the report to the Panel. She informed them of the future meeting dates and the subject matter likely to be discussed at those meetings.

In addition she explained that the Strategic Investment Review was due to be carried out between June and September.

Pauline Gordon commented that the June 2025 meeting date within the report was incorrect and should be listed as 4^th June 2025.

Councillor Paul Crossley asked if an update on pooling arrangements could be given to the Panel.

The Group Manager for Funding, Investment & Risk replied that they were still in limbo currently and that an update would be provided to the Committee in due course. She added that Pools have to submit their plans to Government by March 1^st 2025 and then it would need to be seen how long it would take for the Pensions Bill to be progressed through the different stages of Parliament.

The Head of Pensions said that he felt that the proposals from Government would be the broad minimum baseline and that a risk remains that they decide that further measures are required to be taken.

The Panel RESOLVED to note their forward agenda.