The 89 current Local Government Pension Schemes (LGPS)funds are to be ‘encouraged' to merge into half a dozen ‘Wealth Funds', thereby saving hundreds of millions in administration and costs. This is a good idea. The long-term elimination of needless duplication and wasteful bureaucracy can only lessen the cost erosion of asset value. Rationalisation should also lead to higher quality management, governance and professional advice, while increased size of funds should also yield better and wider investment opportunity.

But achieving this degree of rationalisation within the LGPS sector will not be easy – given that one man's ‘cost' is another man's revenue.