A MASSIVE £2.5bn pension scheme, responsible for thousands of former Merseyside Plessey and Marconi staff, is about to change hands to an offshore company, in a deal worth almost £400m.

Former Marconi personnel manager Steve Radford revealed last night he has written to Merseyside MPs to enlist their support to ensure the pension pot is protected.

A Guernsey-based company has made an offer to buy Telent, a residual company set up following the collapse of Marconi and GPT in the 1990s.

The board of Telent are recom- mending shareholders to accept the offer, which will give the new off-shore owners control of a massive pension fund, affecting thousands of ex-employees across Merseyside of what was once one of the region’s biggest employers, Plessey, Marconi and GPT.

The prospective new owners of Telent and its pension scheme have assured Merseyside pension-ers that the management of the scheme will be in safe hands.

Cllr Radford, leader of the minority Liberal group on the city council, represents the Marconi/Plessey pensioners on a pension fund consultative com-mittee, representing views of fund members to Telent.

Cllr Radford has asked local MPs to raise the issue in the House of Commons to seek guarantees that their future pensions are protected.

He said: “I, like tens of thousands of other Plessey, GPT and Marconi employees living in Merseyside, want to enlist the support of our MPs over this takeover. While the takeover is good news for Telent share-holders, I am not sure the 63,000 global members in the pension scheme, will see it that way.”

Cllr Radford said the takeover will give access to the Pension Corporation of pension funds worth £2.54bn, and an escrow pot worth more than £500m.

He said: “My main concern is Telent have managed the pension fund in a prudent way, using low risk gilts and bonds that give assured income. My worry is the Pension Corporation will not invest in the same investment vehicles.

“I do not want to see the Government relaxing rules of the rights of firms to interfere with or dispose of final salary pension schemes. I believe there should be tighter rules to protect pensions.”

Telent employs 2,000 people and is based in Coventry. In the year to March, 2007, Telent generated a profit of £24m.

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