Southwark Council is taking further action to divest pension fund investments from companies profiteering from activities within conflict zones and countries linked to genocide.
Leader of Southwark Council, Cllr Sarah King said: “We have all seen the horrifying scenes of suffering, death and famine in Gaza since Israel began military action following the appalling murders and kidnappings by Hamas in 2023.
“My heart goes out to those in our community who have been affected by this senseless war.
“I have heard calls from people right across Southwark that they don't want to see their council inadvertently investing our pension funds in activities linked to this conflict.
“The council has been working towards this with the managers of our pension fund investments, but I want to go further by building the UN Genocide Convention into our investments framework and in the meantime seeking removal of investments in companies listed by the United Nations as being linked to the occupation of Palestine.
“We will now be looking at our pension fund to implement this. I want the council to explore all avenues to give both pension scheme members and residents the assurances they need.”
The council will take four actions in relation to the pension fund investments. We will:
- Work with fund managers to disclose and divest pension fund investments in companies listed by the United Nations OHCHR
- Call on the London Collective Investment Vehicle (LCIV) to create a more robust framework that will enable future exclusions of investments linked to conflict, military occupation or genocide. This would also include developing a new fund which gives greater opportunity to divest from particular asset classes within pooled funds.
- Take action to steer investments in pooled funds that are linked to conflict or military occupation. The pension fund changed its arrangements earlier this year to adopt "pass through voting" to give it a stronger say on key issues like climate change. The pension fund will review how it can use this mechanism in the context of human rights and investments linked to conflict or occupation.
- Become the first local authority to build the UN Genocide Convention into our investment framework, so we could choose not to invest in any state found by the International Court of Justice to be in breach of the convention. Our pension fund will develop a plan to implement this initiative with relevant country and sector-specific exclusions.
Southwark Pension Fund places money in investments to pay for staff pensions. It has a long track record of ethical investing and is one of only four UK local government pension funds to have an ambitious 2030 net zero target which we have sector-leading success in delivering.
Since December 2023, it has been monitoring its exposure to 97 companies on the UN List, on a quarterly basis, and has proactively had discussions with investment managers stressing focus on human rights as an important criteria of responsible investment.
The London Collective Investment Vehicle is the investment pool for London-based Local Government Pension Schemes with combined assets of £50.8bn.