Left behind communities need more than just headlines

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Anonymous author!

In this issue’s Devil’s Den, our secret columnist argues that local investment decisions are being made for the middle, leaving struggling communities further behind

Have you ever been handed 700 words, written where you are shrouded in a cloak of secrecy as you deliver them? It’s all a little Bridgerton – steeped in regency, hierarchy and a class system that quietly dictates who gets what.

The mythical beast of local investment; it will create jobs, provide housing and bring communities back to life. If we lead with the hard evidence, the facts, we see data that signals demand but not the clear picture. The real-world problems are vaguely outlined and then headlined by big, investable numbers.

And herein lies the issue: a system attempting to deliver change without having, or at the very least sharing, accurate data. Instead, attention is directed towards the convenient headlines – the easy wins.

Pooling LGPS’s decisions for local regions made by large-scale central investment teams for the people who have remained living in ageing industrial towns, the neglected seaside communities or people struggling with the impact of rising oil prices, social isolation or a family member with support needs without knowing what the next black swan will be or how soon it will come.

The decisions are being made on behalf of the little referenced pension scheme members, some of whom have benefited from council housing in the 80s where the jobs that sustained them have been eroded over time.

Thriving small-town communities are gone, replaced by families who scrape together an hour with their children before bed and who spend their weekends running from under 7s football to soft play, alongside the increased number of people facing isolation or insufficient support services.

Now, members’ pensions are being directed to prop up the parts governments didn’t bother with for years, but mostly for the people who sit in the middle. Affordable housing for those who can afford it, council housing – that’s not investable so let’s not mention it. Infrastructure? We can upgrade the railway lines, so trains can travel faster, be reliable, and charge more. Renewable energy is great, but we are losing fields to solar panels, and is it really available to everyone? What about the homes who rely on oil, the costs of replacing the current systems even with grants is still completely out of reach.

We are being driven in the direction of a government agenda when the government is not looking at the discord surrounding society and community. I am not suggesting we all gather round and talk about the good old days, it’s a false narrative, but where is the accurate data that really outlines what is going on?

Should we continue to go with the faith that everyone else knows exactly what they are doing: providing some vague charts and information to positively confirm the bias they want you to believe.

When information is released and promptly misreported by mainstream media, who have now moved on to another “breaking news” story about something that’s happening in Strictly. It’s not informing people it is separating them, compounding fear and individualism.

Right now, what is really needed is the hard data to help set the right policies which will thrive and set a tone that clears the way for the right investments for pension fund members while building out communities and productivity, along with delivering value for their members.

This can only be done from the ground up, understanding what brings people together, looking at the areas that we need to address rather than the easy ones.

I write this on the eve of the new world of pooling – where LGPS sign over all decisions to their pools under the Pension Schemes Bill, which itself has not been finalised, with those signing on the dotted line doing so on the basis of best wishes and trust.

The Lords and the Ladies have removed controversial powers around mandation of investments in the UK, removing the risk of political influence and cycles, and leaving the House of Commons to reconsider provisions or override them.

Some would say a wonderful time, so close – at the time of writing – to the deadline date of the 31st March, to start a game of battledore and shuttlecock on the pensions industry. Ultimately the LGPS is at risk of blindly committing to yet further changes, while the pools have furiously worked to be able to deliver all these requests in less than 12 months.

All this raises the question of fiduciary duty to members and regions: can the future be delivered via incomplete or selective shared data?

The American economist W. Edwards Deming warned of this years ago. His often-misquoted insight captures what lies ahead perfectly “It is wrong to suppose that if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it – a costly myth.”

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