Latest housing association to exit multi-employer scheme

According to Ian Johnson, chief financial Officer at Metropolitan Thames Valley, the main advantage of leaving the scheme is that it removes the ‘last man standing’ risk, where the housing association was potentially responsible for pension obligations of other employers, some of whom are still accruing DB pension obligations.

“Outside a multi-employer scheme we can then consider asset and liability strategies that suit the particular needs of our pension members,” Mr Johnson said.

Created in 2018, the Metropolitan Thames Valley is the result of the merger of Metropolitan and Thames Valley Housing, which has around 57,000 homes spread across London, the South East, East Midlands and East of England.

The Metropolitan Thames Valley scheme has been previously closed to accrual, which meant the housing association was only making make deficit-reduction contributions.

Mr Johnson said: “As part of the work carried out in the merger of our two legacy organisations, we determined that the most effective way of managing our combined pension risk in the long term was to disaggregate from the SHPS multi-employer scheme.

“Crucially, we have worked to ensure that there is no detriment or disadvantage to our employees or pensioners as a result of the move.”

Metropolitan Thames Valley is also looking for a new provider for its defined contribution members, which were also part of the SHPS.

In October, the housing association’s DC pension assets and liabilities moved within TPT to the Flexible Retirement Plan, as an interim measure until a full procurement exercise was carried out.

In a tender document published on Tuesday, Metropolitan Thames Valley stated it is looking for a provider to offer a single DC pension arrangement to its employees.

This arrangement is to be in the form of a master trust arrangement that is authorised by the Pensions Regulator, it added.