The government’s final report on the Pensions Investment Review outlines a bold vision: a market of fewer, bigger, better-run defined contribution schemes capable of investing in productive UK assets and delivering stronger outcomes for savers.
Protecting and delivering value for members must remain the guiding objective of the government’s pensions reform plan. Yet Altus Consulting’s latest whitepaper, The High Street Revolution: Will building pension megastores solve the DC savings challenge?, finds that confidence in the reforms’ ability to deliver those outcomes is mixed.
This whitepaper draws on exclusive polling data from an anonymous survey conducted in late Spring 2025 gathered insights from 56 senior industry stakeholders on the government’s Pensions Investment Review. The research reveals a sector that recognises the potential benefits of consolidation and scale, but worries that excessive uniformity may come at the cost of innovation, choice and saver engagement. The concern is not with change itself, but with reforms that risk prioritising structural ambition over member benefit.
