ESG spotlight: A roundup of the latest news on environmental, social and governance initiatives, including the London Borough of Lambeth Pension Fund planning investment in affordable housing, and the Border to Coast Pensions Partnership appointing an ESG data provider.
Lambeth to invest in affordable homes
The £1.9bn London Borough of Lambeth Pension Fund is planning to invest in affordable housing with the London CIV, but is also looking at opportunities to invest in the sector outside of the Local Government Pension Scheme pool. Recent pension committee meeting minutes reveal that as at December 31 2021, the scheme was overweight to cash and multi-asset credit and underweight to property and private debt. To address its underweight property allocation, the scheme is engaging with London CIV as it looks to launch an affordable or social housing property fund. This first seed investor group meeting for this proposed fund took place on March 22, with an expected product launch for the first quarter of 2023. The scheme’s advisers are also researching potential affordable and social housing funds for the scheme to invest in directly.
This article first appeared on MandateWire.com
Border to Coast chooses ESG data provider
The £36bn Border to Coast Pensions Partnership, which handles the assets of 11 LGPS funds worth a collective £55bn, has appointed MSCI ESG Research as its new ESG data provider. Following a search launched last year on the UK government’s Find a Tender procurement portal, BCPP chose MSCI to provide it with a system that supplies the pool with research, data and tools to enhance its integration, monitoring and reporting requirements in relation to ESG factors, it said. MSCI was selected from among 10 tenders that the pension pool received for the search. The contract will run for two years, with the option for a further two annual renewals.
This article first appeared on MandateWire.com
