What will the election result mean for the pensions industry?

We can, however, hazard a guess at the kind of things the pensions industry could have thrown at it over the next couple of years, depending on who wins.

There are some significant differences between the major – and minor – parties. Maybe if they all end up in coalition together they will just cancel each other out.

Based on recent experience, though, you can’t rely on a coalition as a guarantor of stability.

The tax treatment of pensions will undoubtedly be high on the list of possible changes.

Only Ukip has expressed real indifference to making any material changes to pensions and if they were in a coalition, they might well abandon their indifference for the sake of keeping the peace with their partners.

I’d expect a Labour pensions minister to get to work strengthening the duties and powers of independent governance committees

The Tories say they would leave the tax relief system alone and just turn the dial on the annual allowance and lifetime allowance. I almost believe them too.

In fact on pension reform generally, financial secretary to the Treasury David Gauke has suggested the Tories feel their work is just about done for now; of course, on the other side of the general election it could be a different story.

Tax relief

On the left, Labour and the SNP would almost certainly institute changes to the tax relief system, cutting back on reliefs for higher earners and quite possibly moving to a single rate of tax relief.

For their part, the Liberal Democrats too would look to tinker with tax relief rates and quite possibly the lifetime allowance.

When asked recently what his number-one priority would be, pensions minister Steve Webb answered that auto-escalation on auto-enrolment schemes would be top of his list.

His view is that having got the masses into pensions, the next job is to get their savings rates up to a better level; I don’t disagree with him either, but if he is involved in the next government, expect early movement on the ratcheting-up of minimum contributions.

Away from tax relief, I think if we get a left-leaning government then we’ll see quite a lot more change.

Not only is Labour pretty unimpressed with the pension freedoms generally, it also sees there is more work to be done on governance.

I’d expect a Labour pensions minister to get to work strengthening the duties and powers of independent governance committees, bringing in a cap on drawdown charges and possibly introducing some restrictions on the pension freedoms.

We could even see the return of the minimum income requirement for drawdown.

Webb has pushed hard to get the auto-transfers system well under way, with some success.

Labour is clearly not enthusiastic about it and would prefer an aggregator system involving a smaller number of larger schemes providing a sweep-up system for small pots.

Away from the private pension system, the state pension has been significantly reformed in the course of the current parliament.

The scheme remains complicated though, and it is probably unrealistic to expect that the next government won’t tinker with it further, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see further changes.

There is also increasing interest in the role electronic communications have to play in pension provision. We may well see the concept of a pensions dashboard developed further.

The idea would be to bring together information on private and state pensions, allowing an individual to view all their pension rights in one place.

It is remarkable that with so much change having taken place during the term of the last government, it feels as if we aren’t yet halfway towards building a solution to the pension challenges. Whoever wins the next election, expect more changes

Tom McPhail is head of pensions research at Hargreaves Lansdown