Despite much anticipation ahead of the Spring Statement, this week proved to be a quieter time for the pensions industry, with no significant pension reforms or changes announced by Chancellor, Rachel Reeves as part of her speech.

Indeed, industry experts suggested that it was a case of "as you were" following the Chancellor's Spring Statement, in which she seemingly stuck by principle of holding only one fiscal event per year.

But despite the lack of update, the influence of the government's proposed reforms and focus on UK growth are still clear in the pensions industry, with focus on productive assets continuing to grow.

In particular, research from The Pensions Regulator (TPR) found that the majority (87 per cent) of defined contribution (DC) pension savers are in schemes that invest in at least one productive asset class.

TPR also argued that sound investment in diverse assets could improve outcomes for savers and generate growth for the UK economy, as TPR chief executive, Nausicaa Delfas, emphasised that "the two do not have to be in conflict".

But broader policy changes could be needed if schemes are to up their allocations to productive assets, as the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) pool Border to Coast Pensions Partnership warned that policy uncertainty and regulatory hurdles are preventing UK pension funds from investing more into UK productive assets.

Aside from the focus on UK investments, this week also saw a renewed focus on administration, amid the Pensions Administration Standards Association (PASA) Conference, where TPR interim director of supervision, David Walmsley, urged pension schemes to "embrace" innovation and the data revolution.

Sessions at the conference included discussion of the expected impact of the proposed new value for money framework, as well as concerns over the fraud risk that could come with the launch of pensions dashboards.

This was not the only news on pensions dashboards, as Origo Dashboard Connector confirmed that it was the latest pensions dashboards participant to successfully complete the programme's integration testing, ahead of the April 2025 connection deadlines.

And there is plenty the industry can be doing to prepare for this, as, in a guest comment for Pensions Age, TPR director of data services, Lisa Allen, stressed the need for every trustee to view data quality as a priority ahead of the upcoming dashboards deadlines.

Momentum is also continuing to build in the bulk purchase annuity market, as analysis from LCP suggested that competition is expected to heat up in 2025, with six insurers writing over £5bn each in 2024, up from five in 2023.

But other areas of the market have reached new lows, as XPS Group's Transfer Activity Index revealed that defined benefit (DB) pension transfer activity fell to a record low in February 2025.

However, analysis from LCP suggested that, whilst take-up rate have remained low, DB pension schemes that enable members to view their illustrative transfer value on a scheme website have consistently higher transfer take-up rates.

Broader industry updates have also been shared, including the news that global insurance and employee benefits intermediary group Howden was set to acquire Barnett Waddingham for an undisclosed amount.

In addition to this, TPR shared its diversity pay gap report, which showed that whilst the mean and median gender pay gaps are below 10 per cent, work is still needed for the regulator to reach its "ambitious" gender pay gap target of 2 per cent.

---