Next government urged to back auto-enrolment

The Society of Pension Consultants has urged the next government to back auto-enrolment soon after it takes office.

The trade body set out its vision for the political priorities at the pensions system in 2010 at its annual dinner last week.

President Duncan Howorth set out the body's updated whitepaper Pensions priorities for a new government.

He said: "Three years on from the Turner Review, we now seem to be five years away from the introduction of a system that is key to addressing the long-term solution of raising retirement incomes for all those most likely not to have access already to a pension.

"More worrying we seem to have little if any political consensus - a recipe for further delays and inaction when what is needed is vision, clarity and delivery."

SPC called on the next government to reinforce its commitment to auto-enrolment and give a firm date for its introduction early in its first term.

It also urged the next administration to make a clear statement that its legislation "will not set out to influence the type of pension scheme an employer wishes to set up".

SPC urged the next government to control regulation and keep it proportionate - and learn lessons from "our excessively, and sometimes counter-productively over-regulated DB past when looking at what governance is needed for our increasingly DC-focused future".