§ Mr. Patrick Jenkinasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether investment by public sector pension funds in works of art, agricultural land and other non-industrial assets is in accordance with the Government's strategy for industrial regeneration.
§ Mr. Denzil DaviesThe Government do not control the investment policies of the pension funds of either the local authorities or the public corporations. In particular, in 1971 the then Government withdrew from controlling the investment policies of the nationalised industries' pension funds, and it remains the present Government's policy that the trustees of these funds should retain responsibility for the solvency of their funds and therefore of the investment of them. In the first three quarters of 1976 the public sector pension funds invested half their net income in company securities and unit trusts, and only a fifth in land and property of all kinds—including property unit trusts—the proportions being similar for local authorities and public corporations.