Newsletter No. 57

 HALCROW PENSIONERS ASSOCIATION 

 Newsletter No. 57 : December 2024

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 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 of this email and encourage them to sign up for their own newsletters here.

The HPA committee wishes all readers an enjoyable Christmas and a prosperous 2025.

Letter to the Trustee About PPF Underpin
HPA sent a letter to the Trustee in June 2023 seeking clarification about the PPF underpin (the promise that those who joined HPS2 would be better off than if they transferred to the PPF). The Trustee finally issued a response in October 2024. The final paragraph of that document states "Separate from the Hughes case, in a couple of decisions in 2018 and 2019 (known as the ‘Hampshire’ and ‘Bauer’ cases), the European Court of Justice stated that EU law requires that employees receive at least 50% of their accrued pension benefits on their employer’s insolvency. The Trustee is still working with its advisers to understand whether these judgments impact its PPF underpin checks, or the benefits being provided. More information will be shared with members when the outcome of this work is complete." The statement didn’t fully answer all our questions and we believe it was watered down through various draft responses. The main uncertainty is that the Trustee is worried about the implications of two court cases in 2018 and 2019 that could benefit HPS2 pensioners. See the response for details. The Trustee now has its lawyers pouring over the application to HPS2. We don’t understand why this wasn’t done in 2018 and 2019 and we believe HPA insistence on receiving a formal response from the Trustee has forced their hand.

The Deprived Pensioners Association
The Deprived Pensioners Association has raised sufficient funds to be able to commence legal proceedings. However, given that the PPF now has a significant funding surplus (as noted on the DPA website), there is a pause to see if the government is willing to modify the existing legislation to enable PPF to apply indexing, in some form. Unlike the recent announcement regarding the WASPI campaign, where any pension increase is unfunded, the PPF does have funds. As referenced above, the legal strength of the HPS2 underpin to apply here is something the Company and Trustee are still investigating.

Trustee Reports on Scheme Funding
The Trustee has issued (i) a Summary Funding Statement at 31 December 2023 (issued October 2023) and (ii) the XPS Pensions Scheme Funding Report for the year to 31 December 2023. The former document revealed that the funding surplus had increased from 104% to 106%. The latter document provides much more detailed financial information and reports (note 9 on page 27) that, as of October 2023, the Trustee has taken over responsibility for certain of the scheme administration costs. These amounted to nearly £300,000 for the whole financial year - another win for Jacobs at the expense of scheme members although this is allowed practice for schemes that are in surplus and with no need for a recovery plan (for the time being).

HPS2 membership has been declining since it was created in 2016. Pensioner numbers are increasing whilst deferred numbers are reducing. This pattern is going to continue until the scheme naturally finishes. It also explains why HPS2 has very largely exited growth investments and is now some 90% invested in bonds and other less risky investments.  The trend in membership numbers is given below:

Discretionary Increases to Pensions
HPA again wrote to the Trustee in early October 2024 requesting consideration of a discretionary pension increase. The Trustee addressed this request in a newsletter issued in October 2024. "To assist Jacobs with this annual consideration, the Trustee routinely corresponds with the Company to ascertain whether it will be exercising its discretion. The Company is required to consent before any discretionary increases can be granted. The Company has determined to not fund a discretionary payment at this time." That newsletter also touches on another matter raised by HPA - better communications with members - by requesting that scheme members supply their email addresses. This implies that the Trustee envisages one-way communications rather than any form of dialogue similar to the PPF's member forum. HPA also wrote to the Trustee on this matter in early October 2024 (ie before the Trustee newsletter) setting out some options for improved dialogue with scheme members.

Deceased Former Colleagues
The HPS2 website maintains a list of deceased HPS2 members. A copy of the list of those who have departed since the start of HPS2 is available here. This list will not include anyone who either did not transfer to HPS2 or has subsequently transferred out of HPS2.

Burderop Park
Burderop Park has been progressively turned into what the developer calls "an exclusive collection of just 58 thoughtfully designed new homes". It appears that only two are remaining to be sold. We have been in contact with the new owner of the mansion. Earlier this year they had a plan to host events in the mansion, which would have provided an opportunity for former Halcrow staff to revisit the building, but a trial event revealed that this would not be worthwhile. However, it may be possible to arrange for small groups to make visits. Someone else has purchased and is redeveloping the walled garden and has called their enterprise the Bothy Gardens. This is expected to be open to visitors in 2025.

Some readers will remember Burderop Park in happier times. If you have any memories to share then there's a place in the HPA forum for them. Feel free to set up similar discussions for the other Halcrow offices.

Future HPA Activities
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. Continue to compare the compensation, benefits and received support of our members within both HPS2 and the PPF.
4. To examine and comment on proposals for changes to pension-related laws or regulations where we think they would affect our interests.
   
5. Take opportunities to press for better supervision of pension schemes and their sponsoring companies.
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.