Saving pensions

New regulations are welcome

PENSIONS ARE, along with mortgages, at the heart of lifelong planning for the future for millions of hardworking people, and that means it is imperative that those savers get a fair deal.

Theresa May is right to pledge a crackdown to ensure that unscrupulous company chiefs are unable to line their own pockets at the expense of those who have saved diligently and responsibly for their retirement.

A series of disturbing cases in recent years has underlined the need for a fresh look at the way pension schemes are run.

The collapse of the BHS retail empire revealed a £571m deficit in its pension fund.

And against the backdrop of the still-unravelling collapse of Carillion, which potentially has a black hole of £900m in its defined pension scheme, the introduction of a white paper outlining steps to protect such funds is indeed timely.

It remains to be seen precisely what measures the Government will introduce to protect pensions, but Mrs May is surely correct in her view that it is both morally and financially unacceptable for executives to pay themselves generous bonuses whilst at the same time pension funds accrue huge deficits that might jeopardise the futures of those who have done the right thing in saving.

Successive governments have urged workers to do just that, and they have responded. Now is time for the Government to honour that commitment.

However the new rules are framed, a firm principle should underpin them – those who have paid into pensions acted in good faith, and those responsible for running companies must do likewise.