West Yorkshire Pension Fund has notched up an impressive annual return of 11.1% over the past three years – the second best performance of the 88 local authority pension funds in the UK. The 200,000 member fund covers employees at Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, Kirklees and Calderdale MDCs as well as a further 181 local government organisations, but is administered by Bradford. A report to members of the fund's joint advisory group has said that the local authority pension funds secured an average annualised investment return of 9.1% and the 2% out-performance secured by WYPF has added an extra £400m to the value of its assets which now stand at £7.2 billion. Cllr Ian Greenwood, chair of the joint advisory group and fund's investment panel said: ‘This is an excellent achievement for the WYPF and a reflection of the tremendous work undertaken by the team of in-houise investment managers. ‘Despite the credit crunch and its impact on stock markets, the WYPF remains in a very sound financial position.' Tony Pearson, regional organiser for Unison and deputy chair of the fund's investment panel, said: ‘The investment out-performance is good news in keeping costs down to employers within WYPF.' Cambridgeshire CC Pension Fund has hired State Street Global Advisors (SsgA) to run a £140m passive equity mandate on its behalf. The Cambridge fund is valued at some £1.2 billion and the move is designed to avoid future risks of underperformance of investment returns. SSgA currently manages assets on behalf of 14 local authorities and has said that the £140m will be invested in its UK equity index strategy, a polled fund range for UK pensions which tracks the FTSE All-Share index.
