Newsletter No. 51
HALCROW PENSIONERS ASSOCIATION
Newsletter No. 51 : December 2022
This is a newsletter of the Halcrow Pensioners Association (HPA). More details of HPA's objectives, organisation and its activities are here. You have been sent this newsletter because you are on the HPA's mailing list. Membership of HPA is open to all to all former Halcrow employees, sub-contractors, spouses and dependants who consider themselves to be part of the Halcrow "family". If you do not wish to receive the HPA newsletters then please either use the unsubscribe link at the bottom of your email or email the webmaster to remove your name from the mailing list. If you know anyone who may be interested to receive the newsletters then please forward them this newsletter using the link at the bottom and encourage them to sign up for their own newsletters here.
The HPA committee wishes all readers an enjoyable Christmas and a prosperous 2023.
Annual General Meeting
At the April 2022 HPA annual general meeting the members approved the suspension of annual subscriptions. Anyone wishing to join HPA, however, will be required to pay a one-off subscription of £10. Please contact the treasurer for guidance on payment methods. Malcolm Bennett stood down as HPA treasurer and retired from the committee. Both the committee and the members are grateful for his efforts since HPA was established.
Financial Information
The Annual Reports and Financial Statements for Jacobs UK Ltd and Halcrow Group Ltd (both for the year to 1st October 2021) and the HPS2 Annual Report and Accounts for 2021 were published in July / August 2022. HPA has examined these documents and a summary of pensions-related information is provided here and includes comparison with the other pension schemes supported by Jacobs UK. At the end of 2021 the funding shortfall for HPS2 had been reduced by £24.8M to £5.4M due mainly to favourable movements in the financial markets (the 2022 report will reveal the effects of the subsequent movements in the markets).
The Change of Trustee
HPS2 members should have received a notice dated 16th November 2022 advising them that the corporate trustee appointed with effect 26th September 2022, to now all five schemes is Jacobs Four Limited, which was formerly the corporate trustee only for the Babtie scheme. This provides financial savings for Jacobs compared to having a separate trustee for each pension scheme. The announcement included this statement "My fellow Trustee Directors and I are committed to running the Schemes in the best interests of all members and we have a strong team of Jacobs colleagues to support us. We will continue to communicate regularly with members and to report on the funding and running of each pension scheme." One disadvantage for HPS2 members is that there is now only one member of the trustee who has any connection to Halcrow. This is a significant change from when HPS2 was established and five of the seven trustee members were former Halcrow employees.
Request for Discretionary Increase
HPA wrote to the HPS2 trustee in July 2022 requesting consideration of a discretionary increase in pensions, as provided for in the HPS2 rules, because the current high inflation had substantially devalued the portion of pensions relating to pre-April 1997 contributions which were given zero % increase when HPS2 was established. There are some older members of HPS2 for whom this is their entire pension. The trustee did not respond to this request until November 2022 when it was announced that "Jacobs has considered whether to award a discretionary increase this year in addition to those increases required under the HPS2 Rules and has discussed this with the Trustee. Jacobs considers it is important to focus its contributions to ensure beneficiaries’entitlements are securely funded, ahead of increasing the liabilities of the Scheme by paying discretionary increases to pensions. Since the Trustee and Company's funding objectives have not yet been fully achieved the Company will not be funding a discretionary increase at this time".
Burderop Park
Google Earth has provided another new satellite image which clearly slows the house around the edge of what was the sportsfield. If you would like to buy one (or look around one) then they are on sale here. They seem to be over-priced for Swindon! Also below, to jog peoples' memories, is a Burderop Park winter scene.
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| Burderop Park from above 20th June 2022 |
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| Burderop Park in a 1980s Winter (which one?) |
Future HPA Initiatives
The need for HPA continues and among the possible ongoing tasks to look after HPA members' interests are:
1. To keep HPA members informed about HPS2 and other pension-related matters.
2. To closely monitor HPS2, the HPS2 Trustee and Jacobs UK (the scheme sponsoring company) to see whether adequate contributions are being made to the pension scheme.
3. To examine and comment on proposals for changes to pension-related laws or regulations where we think they would affect our interests.
4. Take opportunities to press for better supervision of pension schemes and their sponsoring companies.
5. To follow the potential changes in pension scheme rules arising from the Hampshire vs PPF and Bauer court decisions.
6. To facilitate social networking between former Halcrow employees.
Previous Newsletters
If you haven't been with HPA from the start or want to remind yourself of previous events then you can browse through the previous newsletters for which there is a full list here.