Trade body Pensions UK has joined a campaign coalition to advocate for strong corporate governance and sustainable growth.
Pensions UK has teamed up with the Governance for Growth Investor Campaign (GGIC), which is chaired by Railpen and also includes some of the UK’s largest pension schemes.
Three other major investment-focused organisations also joined the group this week, including the International Corporate Governance Network, the Principles for Responsible Investment, and the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association.
Tiffany Tsang, head of defined benefit, LGPS and investment at Pensions UK, said: “Pensions UK is pleased to support the GGIC. We have consistently championed the principle that strong governance and sustainable growth are mutually reinforcing.
“This initiative reflects our enduring commitment to transparency, shareholder rights, and collective engagement, ensuring savers’ interests remain protected while enabling companies to access capital and thrive responsibly.”
Mythbusting on corporate governance
As well as expanding its membership, the GGIC also published a paper to bust common misconceptions around corporate governance standards and their impact on capital markets, which it believes has allowed for the weakening of important shareholder rights mechanisms and governance standards.
The report found no meaningful evidence that high governance standards drive UK companies to list in the US, noting that firms instead seek liquidity, higher valuations, and access to deeper capital markets.
Polling also showed long-term investors highly value shareholder rights, yet feel the UK government is not sufficiently responsive to their needs. Many investors also believe recent UK listing rule reforms have increased investment risk, potentially raising UK companies’ cost of capital.
The GGIC is now urging policymakers to raise standards going into 2026. This includes advocating for good governance initiatives in debates on the planned Draft Audit Reform and Corporate Governance Bill, such as audit and assurance plans and resilience statements and outlawing virtual-only AGMs.
It is also asking for further and formal inclusion of scheme investors in key capital markets decision-making forums, such as the Financial Conduct Authority’s Listing Authority Advisory Panel.
It is also calling for more support to GGIC proposals for addressing fragmentation and removing artificial divides between public and private markets, such as an approach to public interest entity status that reflects the ‘public interest’ status of relevant private companies, and disclosure requirements for companies moving from AIM to the main market.
