Both are looking forward to financial security in retirement thanks to the LGPS. It’s public servants like Debbie and Eddy that the LGPS ultimately serves, and it was great to see them getting involved in this campaign telling their own stories.  

Give it a watch   

The video also touches on how, as one of the largest pension funds in the world, the LGPS is playing a crucial role in advancing sustainability and supporting renewable projects.   

At SYPA, we have a big recruitment campaign starting soon for a variety of roles within our Pensions Administration team, so look out on our website and social media for more about these roles as well as our own Work For Us videos that show why SYPA is such a great place to work.  

For 2024, the Pensions Increase has been confirmed as 6.7%. This increase will be applied from 8 April 2024 to both pensions in payment and deferred pensions. This means that the amount of pension you receive or are entitled to receive in the future will increase by 6.7% to help maintain its value in real terms.

Remember, it’s important to regularly review your pension and understand these increases as part of your retirement planning.

Log into your MyPension account to review your ABS and other documents.

You can still access your mypension accounts online.

We wish you a Happy Easter and hope you enjoy the bank holiday weekend!

The motivation for this project was a review of the agricultural portfolio carried out in 2020 which indicated that for strategic reasons the Fund should reduce its exposure to agriculture from 2.5% and seek to more actively exploit the environmental potential of the portfolio. However, SYPA were also concerned as the owners of the portfolio not to break up a business which has significant potential for future growth if further capital were available. SYPA also recognised that it did not have the depth of technical expertise necessary to actively manage the portfolio to achieve its full potential.

SYPA began discussing the potential for a joint venture with Royal London in 2021 with a view to creating a vehicle which could ultimately accept investment from further institutional investors.

Once an appropriate investment structure had been settled on the process required a significant due diligence process with several thousand documents needing to be reviewed and responses provided to several hundred questions raised by the legal and financial advisers supporting the process. This included reviewing 17th Century deeds relating to some of the land and the conducting of a range of detailed surveys of structures and machinery and things like soil quality.

Once completed to the satisfaction of all parties the final terms of the contractual arrangements were agreed and the transaction completed on 26th of January at which point SYPA moved from owning a portfolio of agricultural land to being the owner of around 46% of the new RL Natural Capital investment vehicle. The new vehicle has an initial business plan which will focus on:

• Investigation of a range of options to address climate change and biodiversity loss and enhancing / maintaining agricultural return while reducing environmental impact, including

• Regenerative farming by changing land management.

• Changing land use.

• Controlled environment agriculture.

• Water quality improvement schemes.

• Direct renewables.

• Exploration of in or off-setting via carbon reduction and removal strategies and Biodiversity Net Gain Initiatives:

• Voluntary inset or residual carbon emissions and wider operational and investment activities.

• Surplus traded into off-set marketplace to enhance and diversify farm revenues.

• Complete a review of the buildings and infrastructure across the estate to consider non-core buildings for demolition or conversion and subsequent sale or rental.

• Develop a comprehensive acquisition strategy including examination of the potential for buying in lower grade land to support environmental initiatives.

This plan fully aligns with the objectives which SYPA was seeking to achieve in its original review of the portfolio which sought to more actively manage the portfolio so as to achieve its full environmental potential.

Speaking of the transaction SYPA Chair Cllr Jayne Dunn said

“SYPA is delighted to be working with Royal London on this project to transfer our agricultural holdings into a new investment vehicle. As a mutual RL share our long-term investment perspective which is reflected in the shared objectives we have agreed for the future management of the portfolio. We have had three objectives throughout this process, to reduce our exposure to this type of asset, to maintain the integrity of the portfolio, and to ensure that the portfolio’s full environmental potential is achieved and the arrangement we have arrived at achieves all three of these objectives and marks a significant step in delivering our investment strategy.”

Recent CBRE data revealed the UK’s major university towns are facing a shortage of more than 350,000 beds, as demand continues to outweigh both the supply and delivery of student accommodation. In Sheffield, it is estimated around 7,000 students are unable to access this type of accommodation.  

Bricks Group is a privately-owned property group, specialising in investment, development, and management across several sectors including hotels, student accommodation, and co-living. The group is known in the student accommodation sector for its brand True Student. 

The South Yorkshire Pension Authority’s Place Based Impact Investment lending programme was established in 2019 to invest within South Yorkshire providing affordable homes for local residents, and now students, as well as providing industrial buildings providing jobs and a boost to the local economy.

The completion of this latest loan to Bricks Group has brought the current loan book to £120m of committed capital, closer to its target of £130m allocation. This is the tenth loan committed to date and it takes the total capital invested by the fund, since launch, to around £160m, with two loans now fully repaid, demonstrating the fund’s potential for further local investment lending in the future. 

Councillor Jayne Dunn, Chair of South Yorkshire Pensions Authority, said: “As a Sheffield Councillor our investment to provide more homes for students in Sheffield is a welcome addition to our local investment portfolio. We are proud to be able to support South Yorkshire’s economy with more investment than ever before with our Place Based Impact Portfolio. The Hollis Croft development will really help to boost our area’s economy, providing new, environmentally sustainable homes for students studying at the universities, and provide quality jobs for the community whilst also freeing up housing for local families and allowing the Authority to make the returns we need to continue to pay our members pensions each month.”