Annual Report shows Brunel cost savings of £57m in 2024/5 and £173m since inception

Brunel Pension Partnership achieved net cost savings in 2024/25 of £57 million per year, far ahead of our 2025 target.

The latest figures appear in our new Annual Report & Financial Statements for financial year 2024-25, which we have published in line with our AGM.

The report looks back on another year of wide-ranging progress at Brunel – across cost savings, asset transitions, Responsible Investment and more. In light of Brunel’s impending wind-down, it also looks further back, across almost a decade of growth and progress.

And it looks ahead in hope, to what our clients will take with them as they join new pools and continue to forge better futures by investing for a world worth living in.

Pride in our progress

Fundamentally, the successes of the year speak well of our people and the culture we have developed together. The outcome of the Fit for the Future consultation is not only difficult for Brunel as a company but also, of course, for our staff. This year, of all years, I am exceptionally proud of how we have all pulled together to remain true to our values, despite such difficult circumstances.

Looking back, many of the numbers speak for themselves. One of the government’s two principal aims for pooling was to deliver cost savings. As our Report shows, Brunel has made net cost savings since inception of £172.9 million, beating even our own lofty targets.

On its second principal aim, investing in UK infrastructure, Brunel has provided industry leadership. Our private markets team more broadly has deployed more than £8 billion into new investments across five private markets asset classes and taken on management of £2bn in property investments. More than 33% of our partnership’s investments (including committed and non-pooled) now sit in private markets, compared to 15% before Brunel was formed. We have more than 30 coinvests in infrastructure projects and platforms across all sectors, meeting the 2016 government ambition to improve returns, reduce fees and costs, and gain more direct access for our clients. Of the £2.9bn invested and committed in infrastructure by the middle of last year, more than 80% is defined as “sustainable”. 55% of all Renewables assets (i.e. £860m) have been invested in the UK.

That points to a third principal aim, one set not by the government but by Brunel – to provide leadership on Responsible Investment. Brunel has more than delivered on that brief, as our forthcoming RI & Stewardship Outcomes Report will show in detail. For now, it is worth just highlighting two key statistics. Figures we published during the reporting year showed that we had cut emissions exposure for the Brunel Aggregate Portfolio by 60% since inception, against a target of 50% by 2030. And we cut reserves exposure by 93%.

We are all immensely proud of this progress – and 2024/25 showed us continue to deliver on our core objectives to our clients and their members. As we approach wind-down, we wish them all the very best in their destination pools, knowing that they take much that we have built with them, and that they will remain committed to Forging better futures by investing for a world worth living in.

You may also like to read about two recent articles on Brunel’s impact that appeared in industry media: