Master trust Nest has launched a new campaign to highlight its £13bn of UK investments to scheme members, with a series of videos showing Brendan Sheerin from reality TV show ‘Coach Trip’ setting challenges to a group as he takes them around the country. It comes as research suggests only a quarter of savers expect their pension to be invested in the UK. 

Amid a political discourse framing pension funds as being duty-bound to kickstart the national economy, arm’s length body Nest has launched a campaign pointing to its existing UK holdings with a series of videos featuring Sheerin. The master trust plans to grow its UK exposure to £20bn by the end of the decade, about a fifth of the £100bn it expects to be managing by then. 

Sheeran said: “I thought I’d seen every type of coach trip possible, but this journey with Nest members had a real twist. Watching people discover that their own pensions are invested in places and businesses they recognise was a real lightbulb moment.” 

 

Nest's ‘Everyday Investor’ campaign is being launched as research commissioned by the currently £60bn master trust found a majority of savers (66%) do not expect their pension to be invested locally or are unsure. Just under a quarter (23%) of respondents said they would expect it to be in local investments. Nest argued people underestimate the role their pension already plays in supporting projects, infrastructure and jobs across the UK.   

In addition, four in five (83%) savers said it would be important to know where their pension is invested, but just a quarter (24%) know. Despite all defined contribution savers having investments, just 7% of women and 20% of men surveyed considered themselves to be investors.   

 

"Our 13m members are investors, even if they don’t realise it. With our Everyday Investors campaign, we’re showing that investing isn’t confined to City skyscrapers, it’s happening in communities across the UK. We want our members to feel proud that their pension is invested, supporting projects and communities across the UK,” said Nest’s chief customer officer, Gavin Perera-Betts. 

 

In the UK, Nest is planning to expand its real assets exposure in particular, in line with the Mansion House Accord. A year ago, it took a 10% stake in IFM Investors, the asset manager owned by 16 Australian superannuation funds. With IFM, Nest aims to develop additional private market investment solutions, pursuing new opportunities in the UK in particular as it seeks to increase its private market allocation to 30% by 2030. 

In 2024, the master trust partnered with Legal & General and PGGM, the investment arm of the Dutch pension scheme for the healthcare sector. The investors committed to building ‘Built to Rent’ properties across the UK.