The UK pensions industry stands at a pivotal moment. Long-term savings are increasingly being recognised not only as a foundation for secure retirements, but as a powerful lever to support national growth, resilience and competitiveness. The question is no longer whether pension capital should play a greater role in backing the UK’s future industries - but how this ambition can be delivered in practice.
The Mansion House Compact marked a significant shift, with Defined Contribution (DC) schemes committing to allocate at least 5% of default funds to unlisted equities by 2030. Since then, momentum has continued to build. The Mansion House Accord, with its specific UK allocation target, the Sterling 20 Group, and the consolidation of Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) pools have expanded both participation and scale. Together, these developments offer the UK the opportunity to invest with sovereign wealth fund–like intent.
With the forthcoming Pension Schemes Bill reserving mandatory powers should progress stall, the direction of travel is clear. The challenge now is to demonstrate that the sector can move forward voluntarily - and at pace.
It was precisely this challenge that Future Planet Capital set out to test through Making Mansion House Happen, a new report published at the end of January. Between July and December 2025, we convened a series of structured, sector-specific workshops bringing together more than 150 experts from across pensions, government, venture capital and industry. The aim was simple but ambitious: to examine how the aspirations of the Mansion House agenda can be translated into practical, investable action.
One message came through clearly. The biggest barrier to pension investment in UK venture and growth assets is no longer willingness - it is delivery.
Across the workshops, participants were aligned on the long-term rationale for greater pension participation in productive private assets. The UK is the world’s third-largest venture capital market and the third-largest pension market, with £2.5 trillion in assets. A 1% allocation of pension assets into domestic venture capital would unlock £25 billion, materially deepening the pool of scale-up capital available to the UK’s most promising companies. Over extended periods, UK venture capital has outperformed public markets, strengthening the long-term returns case for savers.
The challenge lies in translating this opportunity into structures that work for pension schemes in practice. Making Mansion House Happen responds directly to this gap. The report sets out clear, workable pathways for schemes to invest with confidence - without compromising fiduciary standards - across priority sectors aligned with the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, including advanced manufacturing, clean energy, digital infrastructure, life sciences and security technologies.
Importantly, the findings demonstrate that the barriers identified by schemes - from governance and scale to liquidity, cost and implementation - are real, but not insurmountable. With clearer frameworks, better alignment across stakeholders and practical routes to participation, pension capital can play a meaningful role in building the industries shaping Britain’s future, while delivering stronger outcomes for savers.
We are very grateful to the Chair of our Advisory Board, Lord Norman Foster, for his continued support, and to Baroness Ros Altmann for her foreword and sustained leadership on productive finance. As Baroness Altmann notes in the report:
“This report makes clear that there are credible, workable routes for pension schemes to increase their exposure to productive private assets. The prize is not simply meeting a headline target but rebuilding a long-term investment culture that supports both better retirement outcomes and a more resilient UK economy.”
With policy momentum building and industry engagement deepening, the opportunity now is to move decisively from ambition to action - aligning long-term savings with long-term growth, and ensuring the benefits are shared by both pension savers and the wider UK economy. | 
