Webb confirms auto-enrolment, but no Nest reassurances

But, speaking at the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) conference in Liverpool, the pensions minister deliberately made no reassurances for the future of the National Employment Savings Trust (Nest).

“Today, I want to reiterate the commitment of the coalition to automatic enrolment into workplace pensions,” said Webb.

“There has been some speculation about this, but we are going to do it and do it on the timetable we plan to do it on because we don’t want to see any further delay”.

Webb said he would respond “very shortly” to the report undertaken by Adrian Boulding, David Yeandle and Paul Johnson.

“We don’t want to let the timetable slip but we want to see if there is anything we want to improve on auto-enrolment as we inherited it but we want to also get on with it.”

Webb said he was committed to reducing the regulatory burden upon employers who are running good quality schemes, and praised NAPF’s Pensions Quality Mark scheme for “reinforcing the message that private pensions need to look at more than just how much is being saved, but to understand other important factors”.

“We have to get away from the mindset of DB good, DC bad,” he added.

The minister’s speech was noted for the conspicuous absence of any references to Nest, but refused to be drawn on the quango’s future.

“What we asked the review team to work out was if auto enrolment was right and judge if Nest was right in that role. The review team has come back and we have to resolve that.

“I hope not to keep you in suspense for much longer.”