The government is to take over the management of pension schemes previously attached to lenders that collapsed during the 2007-09 financial crisis.
This week’s Budget report stated that legislation would be introduced early next year to allow the legacy Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley defined benefit (DB) pension schemes to be transferred to central government control.
The schemes have been managed by UK Asset Resolution, a government body, since Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley were taken into public ownership in 2007.
UK Asset Resolution is being wound up by the government after the majority of its businesses were sold in 2021. HM Treasury initially planned to take on the schemes in early 2025, but this was subsequently delayed, and is now expected by early 2028.
The Budget report stated: “Continuing progress towards winding down UK Asset Resolution, the government expects to lay enabling secondary legislation in early 2027, with the transfer of the pension schemes for former Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley employees to central government to occur by the end of 2027-28.”
According to UK Asset Resolution’s latest annual report, as of 31 March 2026, the two DB schemes had combined assets of more than £1.2bn and liabilities of around £876m.
Northern Rock was nationalised in February 2008, while Bradford & Bingley followed it into public ownership in September 2008 at the height of the financial crisis.
