Mersey pensions continue to fund weapons

Nov 28 2007 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

THOUSANDS of Merseyside civil servants and university staff are to continue having their pension funds invested in companies involved in the arms trade.

Wirral Council, which administers the pension fund shared by five Merseyside councils, this week blocked attempts to halt investment on ethical grounds.

It sets the authority on a collision course with neighbouring councils in Liverpool, St Helens and Knowsley who have all passed resolutions calling for the fund to pull out of companies involved in the arms trade.

Last night, Liverpool council leader Warren Bradley said he was surprised at the decision.

Cllr Bradley said: “I will have to wait for official feedback from our executive member Keith Turner, but if what you are telling me is true I am startled they have not taken on board what three councils have said.

“In that case, we would have to take stock of where we are and what course of action we will have to take.”

Mark Holt, of Merseyside Stop the War Coalition, said Wirral’s pensions committee had not taken seriously these demands from its partner authorities.

He said a committee meeting at Wallasey Town Hall spent “less than five minutes talking about it”. “Is this how democracy works on the Pension Board?”

This summer, the Daily Post revealed how the fund had £13.6m linked to investments with firms that are involved in aspects of armaments trade, including BAE, Boeing and Rolls-Royce.

The pension fund, administered by Wirral Council on behalf of all local authorities, manages an investment pot worth around £4bn, investing on behalf of workers in local government, housing trusts and John Moores University. Liverpool Council last month passed its resolution which stated that “investment in the arms trade is not compatible with good corporate, social and ethical governance”, with similar moves by St Helens and Knowsley authorities.

Mark Holt said: “Effectively, they voted to continue to invest in companies such as BAE Systems who build cluster bombs which are effectively anti-personnel mines to which children are particularly vulnerable, too.

“If the Trustees of the Pension Fund think that their sole responsibility is to make a good return for their investments, why don’t they invest in the porn industry?

“They would say that that would be ridiculous and unethical.

“I say quite right, so why invest in the arms industry?”

But Wirral councillor Ann McLachlan, chair of the pension committee, said their “over-riding priority” and legal duty is to maximise returns for past, present and future contributors to the fund.

She said : “The Stop the War Coalition were looking for a blanket policy for us to disinvest, but the committee was of the view that we should engage with companies rather than pull out, and bring them round to more responsible or ethical issues.

“For example, BAE – which they say they want us to pull out of – it may make components for arms industries, but it also makes civil aircraft and provides jobs for Merseyside.”