Lord Fuller (Con)

My Lords, it has been an interesting debate. The LGPS is special. It is the closest thing, as a number of noble Lords have said, to having a sovereign wealth fund in our islands, and I am unconvinced by the points made by the noble Lord, Lord Katz. He has misunderstood what local investments are. I do not accept for a moment his reassurances around the creation of specialist pools. As my noble friend Lord Younger said from the Front Bench, this increases unnecessary rigidity, damages coherence and misunderstands the distinction between funding and financing. I suppose noble Lords can be grateful for at least one thing: as the noble Lord, Lord Katz, was at the Dispatch Box, it saved the Minister, the noble Baroness, Lady Sherlock, repeating the old trope that the large Ontario and Canadian pension funds are the sorts of things against which the LGPS should be marked. Today, the Financial Times reported that the Ontario funds have fallen away by 5.3% over the last year, while the LGPS has grown by 9%. This is what happens. I am conscious that I am winding. I will not press Amendments 1, 2 and 5 to a vote, but I will support my noble friend Lady Noakes in the Lobby if she chooses to divide the House.