The new prime minister, Andy Burnham, is keeping Torsten Bell as pensions minister at the Department for Work and Pensions and in his role at the Treasury, while Jim McMahon returns to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. 

Last night, Number 10 said Bell will remain as a minister across both the DWP and the Treasury, being the last one out of the DWP ministers to be confirmed. He is also the only one in the department to remain a parliamentary under-secretary, as Andrew Western has been promoted to minister of state. It is unclear if Western is taking the brief of former employment minister Dame Diana Johnson, who is moving to the Department of Health and Social Care.  

While the DWP therefore remains largely unchanged, the new PM's appointments to MHCLG mean it partly looks like it did before Sir Keir Starmer's reshuffle last September. Angela Rayner is back in charge, and Jim McMahon, who used to look after local government including the Local Government Pension Scheme, returns as well; Alison McGovern, who most recently held that brief, moves to the Department of Health and Social Care. Sir Stephen Timms, who continues in the DWP, now also has a role at MHCLG as minister for equalities.

The pensions industry expressed satisfaction with Bell's reappointment.  

"Torsten has shown he can deliver ambitious reform as a pensions minister, and we are glad to see him stay in post to see that through. Maintaining momentum will be critical to delivering better outcomes for savers," said Zoe Alexander, executive director of policy and advocacy at Pensions UK.  

Calum Cooper, head of pension policy innovation at consultancy Hymans Robertson, also welcomed the news, saying the continuity provides an opportunity to maintain momentum and focus on delivery.  

"We have seen significant progress across a range of policy areas, from pensions adequacy and retirement outcomes to productive finance and pensions dashboards. The priority now should be turning proposals into tangible improvements for savers," he said. 

Cooper said participation alone is no longer enough and that a stronger focus on outcomes is now needed, by implementing auto-enrolment reforms and setting out a path to higher saving levels, including for underpensioned groups, while supporting economic growth.  

Continuity amid a large reform agenda is also seen as positive by David Brooks, head of policy at consultancy Broadstone.   

“There is a big opportunity – through the expansion of [collective DC], unlocking surplus capital and delivering pensions dashboards to name just a few – to make a tangible difference to workers, savers, providers and UK plc," he said. 

Bell is widely seen as a minister who shows an interest in pensions and is respected for his knowledge of socio-economic factors and effects. However, not everyone feels the same about his grasp of investments and markets. His handling of the investment mandation clause in the Pension Schemes Act 2026 – giving ministers power to order that a portion of people's pension savings should be put into opaque private assets, some of which recently made negative headlines – risked the passage of a bill that otherwise enjoyed consensus, and was widely criticised by the industry. To get the House of Lords on side, Bell was ultimately forced to water the clause down substantially by giving funds the option to seek an exemption based on member interests.

The MP for Swansea West also ruffled feathers when he first took over from Emma Reynolds early last year, as he chided the collective pensions industry for wishing for a Pensions Commission. A commission was announced just four months later. Whether that commission will effect changes to pensions policy is yet to be seen, with recommendations due in 2027. Bell has ruled out increasing auto-enrolment contributions in this parliament.

The recent legislation Bell has spearheaded largely implements pensions policies devised by Conservative governments, which were similarly keen to tap pension assets in the hope of better domestic growth amid Brexit, Covid-19 and the lingering effects of the global financial crisis. 

The reduction of eight LGPS asset pools to six is reminiscent of former chancellor George Osborne's original plan to create six 'British wealth funds' of at least £25bn each. This is now the figure that defined contribution providers must reach with their main default arrangements by 2030, as the new legislation accelerates market consolidation that was already underway. Work on surplus release, small pots consolidation and superfunds equally started several years ago but had not seen much progress in legislative terms during the UK's protracted exit from the EU and the pandemic.  

The main new pensions policy in the PSA26 – perhaps the only one by Labour so far – is the introduction of guided retirement, which aims to lessen the potential of pension freedoms to harm outcomes.