Autumn Statement: Osborne to ‘unlock' £20bn from pension funds

The Chancellor has confirmed he will unlock £20bn of pension fund assets to invest in private infrastructure in a bid to "overhaul the physical infrastructure of our nation".

Speaking in the Autumn Statement this afternoon, Chancellor George Osborne said he had negotiated an agreement with two pension organisations, previously confirmed as the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) and the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), to "unlock" pension funds savings. The agreement feeds into the Treasury's National Infrastructure Plan, published today, which has indentified 500 infrastructure projects which could draw on private sector money. "We are mobilising the finance needed to deliver them," Osborne said. He added the country needed to put to work millio...