North Herts District Council has passed a motion calling on those responsible for the Hertfordshire Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) to end its £95 million investments in firms linked to atrocities and other violations of international law.
The motion, which was passed with the support of an overwhelming majority of councillors on 4 December, noted that most past and present NHDC employees belong to this pension scheme. It underlined that the scheme holds investments in companies involved in grave human rights violations, including firms producing weapons and other military technologies that have allegedly been used in atrocities.
Labour Councillor Dave Winstanley, who proposed the motion, said at the meeting: “The pension scheme does have an ‘Environmental, Social and Governance’ Responsible Investment Policy. They’re currently working on the ‘environmental’ part… but they evidently need a push on the other two”.
Councillors resolved to instruct the Leader of the Council to formally write to the Herts County Council Pensions Committee, which oversees the pension scheme, to call for “action to divest from all pension fund investments in companies that profit from the manufacture of weapons and military technology used contrary to international law, and from any companies found to be profiting from business activity which is illegal under international law”.
In particular, the Leader of the Council will be instructed to emphasise the importance of applying Environmental, Social, and Governance standards to assets that are pooled with other pension funds. Our own campaign has noted that those responsible for the Hertfordshire LGPS have often used the pooling of investments as an excuse to do nothing about these issues, when in fact it doesn’t change the fact that they have the ability and a clear duty to take action.
In the same motion, NHDC also resolved to take these principles into account in the next scheduled review of its own investment strategy.
Herts Palestine Support Coalition 
Leave a comment