Thanks for posting this - it's something I hadn't heard about.
Call me suspicious, but Chancellors from Gordon Brown onwards have regarded private pensions as a pot of money that should belong to the government not pensioners.
This move looks like a cash grab; moving the funds away from local authorities (which are mostly financially incompetent) to (equally incompetent) central government control means that local authorities lose control of their own money. The Chancellor will be able to tap into them any time she pleases. Particularly if it can be justified as investing in "green" projects irrespective of return on investment.
There are a couple of other factors to consider. First is that the size of funds is a damning indictment of how much we pay in Council Tax is actually used to fund pensions rather than delivering services. Second is how much of the pension funds go to overpaid senior executives rather than the ordinary lower level staff who do the actual work ?
I know what you mean, it's not necessarily going to be great for the future pensioners, socialising pensions, I mean we've got the state pension already, that's enough I think.
Is CT used to fund pensions, I don't think it's supposed to be....? Certainly way too much goes on wages, councils are very inefficient, way too many of them anyway.
Pensions are part of the payroll, which is a big part of what Council Tax covers. So whether it's the lowliest social worker or the chief executive, and whether it's pension contributions paid by employees or employer, it's the local taxpayer who pays.
As for councils, I've seen up close how they work. It's an unhealthy mix of amateur elected councillors (who are generally retired or otherwise unable to work) and professional salaried staff who have no democratic accountability and are entirely driven by policies delivered from central government.
I attended a planning meeting recently, and the contrast between elected and unelected members of the committee was shocking. The unelected professional staff had no interest in the wishes of the local citizens, only in ticking boxes to apply government policy. Councils should most certainly not get involved in owning properties other than social housing !