Episode summary
Episode 4: Bonus: Always a Pensions Angle: Nick Dixon of Avon Pension Fund - Engagement, Purpose,...
The Fiftyfaces Podcast
· · Guests: Nick Dixon
Summary
Nick Dixon says Avon Pension Fund’s 2024-25 aerospace and defence consultation was triggered by member petitions over the war in Gaza and the indirect role of aerospace companies in supplying Israel. The fund framed the issue as a trade-off between NATO defence, environmental concerns and civilian harm, then surveyed members to test whether there was a mandate to divest. The result was split: 42% wanted to divest, about 47% wanted to remain invested, and 11% were unsure, so the committee decided to stay invested in December 2025.
Dixon argues the consultation was unusually well engaged for an online survey: roughly 30,000 invitations produced 2,500 responses, about 8%-9%, which he says is far above the typical 2%-3% response rate. He also says Avon wants to repeat similar exercises every one or two years on topics such as climate and local investment, using the process to inform committee thinking rather than replace it.
The second half focuses on Avon’s move from Brunel to LPPI. Dixon says the legal agreements are close to being signed, most assets will transfer in specie, and only a small 1%-2% slice may create transaction costs. He says Avon plans to raise its local investment aspiration from 3% by end-2026 to 5% by end-2027, targeting about £300 million of a £6 billion fund across housing, renewable infrastructure and small business funding in the southwest.
Key takeaways
- Nick Dixon says Avon Pension Fund did not get a clear mandate to divest from aerospace and defence, so it stayed invested.
- He says 2,500 responses from roughly 30,000 invitations made the consultation statistically robust and far above normal online-survey turnout.
- Avon plans to increase its local investment target to 5% by end-2027, equal to about £300 million of a £6 billion fund.
- Dixon says the Brunel-to-LPPI transition is largely on track, with the biggest work in legal documents and asset transfer mechanics.
- He argues local funds should absorb political pressure themselves rather than push it upstream to the pool.
Notable quotes
“42% wanted to divest. About 47% said they'd like to remain invested and about 11% said they didn't know”
“we issued about 30,000 invitations. We had 2 and a half thousand responses”
“we've decided that the committee wanted us to make this sort of thing more regular”
“we've got a plan to deploy 3% of our fund into local by the end of 2026”
“we need to take the political flack locally and pull our members accordingly”
How the episode opens
Hey, hey. Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the last, yes the last of the LGPS interview series. I am Thomas Parker. I'm joined by the editorial supreo of pensions expert. It is Nick Reev. — Hello. I wondered who you were building up to then. Didn't recognize that. Thank you very much. That's the best intro I' ever had.
Very excited for the last one. — Glad to hear it. Um, so Nick, who have we got today?
Well, uh, I'm very glad you asked me to introduce him because, uh, it is another Nick. Um, another pensions Nick. It's Nick Dixon, uh, from the Avon pension fund.
Um, very excited. Uh, I should declare an interest at this point. I'm not a member of the Avon pension fund.
I just live in the district formerly known as Avon. Uh, so I'm a bit of a fan um, of the general area. But it's also been quite interesting some of the talking points um that you're going to hear in this interview.
Yes. And as ever um as with all of our interviews, this took place at Lapsif February last month and was hosted by the 50 Faces podcasts host uh Ethan Devit. and Ethan started off by asking uh Nick about the recent aerospace investment consultation that the fund did, why the consultation was conducted and the outcomes of that that consultation.
So during 2024 and and 25, we had a lot of petitions from our members who were deeply concerned about the war in Gaza in particular, Israel's response and the indirect role of aerospace and defense companies in supplying Israel. So um in response to that, we thought this is a critical stakeholder issue and therefore we conducted a survey of all our members.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- pension fund engagement
- member survey
- aerospace and defence investments
- gaza divestment debate
- stewardship and trade-offs
Companies and tickers mentioned
- AEG
- Avon Pension Fund
- Aegon UK
- Quilter
- Local Pensions Partnership
Watch the episode
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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The Fiftyfaces Podcast, this episode and its artwork belong to Aoifinn Devitt. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
