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Wiltshire Pension Fund is one of the UK Local Government Pension Schemes (LGPS). Under the LGPS Regulations Wiltshire Council is the Administering Authority for the Wiltshire Pension Fund.

Members of the Fund include people who work for Wiltshire Council, and a whole range other organisations such as local Colleges or Town and Parish Councils. Around 166 employers allow their employees to join the Fund. We currently have over 89,000 members

The LGPS is a Statutory Scheme. This means that it is very secure because the amount members are paid in retirement is defined and set out in law.

Members’ pensions are funded in part by contributions paid into the scheme by the employers and the members, and in part by the returns earned on the Fund’s investments, which are held in investment portfolios valued at just over £3.5bn

CHAIR’S FOREWORD

Welcome to this year’s Annual Report!

This is my first foreword as Chair of the WPF Pension Fund Committee, and I am taking on this new responsibility at a very challenging time for the LGPS. This foreword looks back at some of the highlights of 2024/25 but also looks ahead to how we will be navigating those challenges whilst continuing to work to achieve our existing ambitions.

As at March 2025 the Fund’s investments had risen to just over £3.5bn. I am pleased to report that the funding level remains positive reaching 105% at the end of the year. Over the last year the Fund has appointed Barnett Waddingham as fund actuary, whose approach provides a more sustainable and realistic picture of the health of the Fund and supports our messaging to employers.

The 2025 actuarial valuation is currently underway, and I look forward to reporting on the results in due course. We are also undertaking a review of our strategic asset allocation (SAA)

The Government’s ‘Fit for the Future’ consultation, published in late 2024, outlined significant reforms to the way the LGPS manages its investments. Pools were asked to submit business plans for how they would implement the changes. Ministers then responded to the plan submitted by WPF’s pool, Brunel, stating that it does not meet the Government’s vision of the LGPS’s future, and we have been asked to find another pool to partner with, with a decision expected by 30 September 2025. This obviously raises

significant risks and concerns, but members should be reassured that their pensions are safe. Officers and the Committee are working hard to find a path through this problem and are prioritising finding an innovative new pool with strong sustainability credentials, where we can be accepted as active collaborators. This next step for WPF is about establishing a strong relationship for years into the future, so we can ensure the investments held to pay our members’ benefits will be well-managed.

In March 2024, the Committee approved a new three-year business plan (“Our Pathway to Success”), and 31 March 2025 represented the first year of this plan. This year the Committee also oversaw the introduction of a robust new framework for risk management, as well as a significant improvement in the Fund’s administration performance, with the backlog of work being reduced to <100 cases, down from a high of c.10,000 three years ago. The Fund continued to receive recognition for its investment approach during 2024/25, with one highlight being a big win at the LGC Investment Awards, where we won the Investment Innovation Award, for our Climate Opportunities portfolio

George Simmonds, Chairman On behalf of the Wiltshire Pension Fund Committee

OFFICERS’ FOREWORD

2024/25 has been a busy year, during which we have continued to implement improvements and work towards deliver of our Business Plan 24/27,. We have now migrated all pensioners across to our integrated payroll system, and our in-house payroll team are now paying the pensions for all of our 23,407 pensioners giving us far greater assurance around accuracy , and more robust controls.

Resourcing remains an area of high priority, as we continue to develop the team culture and build a resilient team. During 2024/25 we carried out an extensive programme of work in partnership with the HR&OD team, supporting people to be proactive and to deliver a highperformance culture.

We have continued to prioritise inclusivity in everything that we do, carrying out a Pension Awareness Campaign designed to cater to the needs of our diverse membership. Based on this and other work we have done to promote inclusivity, we were delighted to win the LAPF Investment Awards trophy for Diversity & Inclusion in late 2024!

We are currently working to deal with the changes contained in the reforms in the latest Pensions Bill. This will involve finding a new investment pool to implement our investment strategy and ensure robust management of our £3.5bn investment portfolios. This is a significant challenge, and we will be looking for a pool where we can be an active partner and help drive improvements.

Now that we have accomplished several key foundational improvements and established a strong culture and structure for our team, we look ahead to delivering against our vision “To deliver an outstanding service to our scheme employers and members”. We will ensure that we deliver a good service whilst also dealing with the challenges that the Government have set us.

We look forward to reporting back in a year’s time on our progress.

Lizzie Watkin, Treasurer to the Fund Jennifer Devine, Head of Wiltshire Pension Fund,

HOW ARE WE DOING?

In this section we highlight a couple of initiatives which aim to deliver service improvements.

CASE STUDY STREAMLINE PROCESSES AND IMPROVE OUR SERVICE USING I-CONNECT

i-Connect allows the fund to streamline processes’ and improve the service we provide to our employers and members. i-Connect allows us to:

Drive efficiency through implementing bulk processing.

Improve data quality.

Minimise the time taken to inform members that have left employment of their options/pension benefits/refunds/ transfers.

Reconcile the contributions paid in respect of members benefits against the reported membership information accurately and timely.

Enable members to view their pension accounts in real time.

We’ll keep working with employers to resolve data issues and improve future reporting, while continually reviewing our processes for greater efficiency.

Service administered effectively and cost-efficiently

SMARTER WORKING

We maintain focus on our core objectives, and work in a proactive and disciplined way, to promote simplicity and efficiency in everything we do.

CASE STUDY EMBEDDING A NEW RISK MANAGEMENT PROCESS

This year we have evolved our approach to risk management.This has involved maintaining the very engaged role managers play in assessing risks, whilst improving the scoring and assessment of risks.

The new approach has involved the Fund setting a risk appetite, using a 5x5 matrix to score likelihood and impact, and wording all risks in a standard way (cause, event, effect). All risks are mapped to each of the Fund’s strategic vision goals, as set out in the Fund’s business plan, so we can assess the impact of risks on service delivery.

The process maintains a clear register of controls against each risk, ensuring risk owners document and complete key control processes. The outcome of this has been to further embed the management of risks and ensure clear reporting of risks to key decision makers, to inform effective decision making.

Robust processes, controls and risk management

SCHEME MEMBERSHIP

The membership of the scheme at the end of the year is set out below:

5-YEAR ANALYSIS OF FUND MEMBERSHIP

Active members are those that are currently employed by Wiltshire Council or other participating employers. Deferred members are those that have left employment before retirement and have preserved benefits in the Fund. Penioners are those members that are receiving a pension from the fund and includes those in receipt of a dependant’s pension.

SCHEME EMPLOYERS

There were 12 new employers joining the Fund during 2024/25, of these:

11 were new admissions relating to outsourced services from education based organisations, e.g. catering or cleaning companies

1 Parish Council joined the Fund, which previously had their pension provision elsewhere 21 employers (admitted bodies) exited the Fund during 2024/25. The reasons for exiting ranged from the employers’ last active members leaving their employment, to contracts coming to an end or the employer ceasing trading.

Scheduled and Resolution Bodies –Includes Academies, Town and Parish Councils, and Wiltshire, Swindon Borough, and Salisbury City Councils

ENGAGEMENT WITH OUR SCHEME EMPLOYERS

AND MEMBERS

MORE THAN 22,000 MEMBERS, EMPLOYERS AND PENSIONERS

read our campaign on the Fund’s RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT AND STEWARDSHIP IN ACTION, compared with c13,000 in 2023

Our Pension Awareness Week campaign in 2024 was read by >59,000 MEMBERS with c600 members attending our events across the week!

CLEAR COMMUNICATIONS

We communicate with all our stakeholders in a clear, concise, relevant and

48.6% OF OUR ACTIVE, DEFERRED AND PENSIONER MEMBERS have signed up to our online portal, compared to c44% in 2023/24

REPORT FROM THE EMPLOYER REPRESENTATIVES OF THE FUND

During 2024/25, we have been building on work completed in 2023/24 to help improve representation for employers at a strategic level. The Employer Newsletters sent over the last 18 months have contained important updates for employers and have been very well received.

Highlights from 2024/2025 include the continued revisions to the employer area of the Fund’s website to make the content clearer and easier to find for employers; a Pensions Awareness Week (PAW) Campaign, designed to help members understand their pensions and retirement; the ill-health retirement webinar and updated associated guidance; the appointment of a new Employer Liaison Officer, which will be key a link between the Fund employers and the Fund continuing the development of the Fund’s employer and administration functions.

2024/2025 has seen a continuation of the change in Fund’s employer make up, in that educational based employers continue to hold the largest membership and just over a third of all the Fund employers being based outside of the County.

Additionally, the Fund introduced closer monitoring and reconciliation of employer contributions and data submissions, to identify any areas of improvement and ensure employers maintain their responsibilities within the Fund.

This is my final year as the Employer Representative, I’ve enjoyed my time on the Committee and thank fellow Committee members and Officers for their support over the years, which has been invaluable.

Director of Finance & Business Magna Learning Partnership

Claire Anthony

Billions

THE FINANCIAL HEALTH OF THE FUND

Fund Value vs Liabilities for years ending 31 March 2024

£3.5 bn (current value of the Fund)

£4.0

£3.5

£3.0

£2.5

£2.0

£1.5

£1.0

£0.5

£0.0

Fund Value Fund Liabilities

Funding Level 105.3% (based on roll-forward of 2022 valuation) 2025

Total number of members in the pension scheme –89,044

We currently have >89,000 MEMBERS

We received contributions of £149m and paid out benefits of £131m during the year

It cost us £3.6m

to run the fund (admin, oversight and governance costs), equivalent to £40 PER MEMBER

INVESTMENT HIGHLIGHTS

WHOLE FUND RETURNS

69%

OF OUR ASSETS

are now pooled through the Brunel Pension Partnership

£3.5 bn (value of our investments as at 31 March 2025)

LONG TERM STRATEGIC ASSET ALLOCATION

Paris-Aligned Passive Equities

Global High Alpha Active Equities

Global Sustainable Active Equities

Private Equity

Multi-Asset Credit

Private Debt

Private Core Infrastructure

Climate Opportunities

Secured Income

Impact Affordable Housing

Core Property

Liquid Loans

Passive Gilts

Our private markets portfolios are growing! During 2024/25, we funded 108 private market capital calls at a value of £212.9m

We made a £30m commitment to the Octopus Affordable Housing Fund as part of our Affordable Housing portfolio. The fund has maintained its Stewardship

Code Signatory status.

We released more than 20 investment case studies and reports including our brand new Investing in the UK Report!

SUMMARY FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (UNAUDITED)

FUND ACCOUNT

For the year ended 31 March 2025

NET ASSETS STATEMENT For the year ended 31 March 2025

NB Some figures may not sum to total assets due to rounding