The total membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) increased by 3.4 per cent year-on-year to 5.8 million, according to the Scheme Advisory Board's latest annual report.

As of 31 March 2018, its membership rose by 197,000 members in comparison to March 2017.

Speaking at the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association's Local Authority Conference, chair of the LGPS Advisory Board, Roger Phillips, said: “Membership is up again across all the sectors and active membership has broken the 2 million barrier.

“The total employers has gone up by another 6 per cent, you do wonder where some of them were lurking, to almost 15,000.

“That of course in itself is a statement of how you deal and engage with all those employers and the various risks that some of them bring with them.”

The report also revealed that the total assets of the LGPS increased by 5 per cent to £275bn.

The assets were primarily invested in pooled investment vehicles (54 per cent), although 29 per cent were invested in public equities.

A further 7 per cent were invested in bonds, 3 per cent in direct property and 7 per cent in “other asset classes”.

Phillips continued: “The overall cash flow position was positive by the tune of £5bn and the contributions in that particular year exceeded benefits by £1.85bn. The previous year it was a slightly different story.

“Our administration and governance costs were also down.”

The LGPS's next triennial valuation will be on 31 March 2019.

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