Posted on 05/29/2010 8:57:31 PM PDT by Libloather
Private pensions to fund housing
Plan will offer lucrative returns on bonds linked to infrastructure projects
May 30, 2010
The Scottish and UK governments are to target private pension funds to raise capital for public-sector infrastructure projects.
Faced with swingeing budget cuts and a fall in bank lending, Alex Salmond and Vince Cable, the British business secretary, plan to offer private pension firms lucrative returns on government bonds linked to social housing, transport and green energy developments.
Currently, many of the funds, worth about £1 trillion, are investing in American corporate bonds that offer a higher rate of return than UK government bonds. Now ministers want to devise new investment vehicles, including bonds, providing comparable yields.
The money could be used initially to build social housing, which would ease the shortage of affordable properties and give the construction industry a welcome boost. Details of the plan are in a Scottish government discussion paper on funding new housing. It states: “There is an opportunity for institutional investors, such as pension funds and life companies, which have not traditionally funded the affordable housing sector, to consider doing so.
“Affordable housing is a low risk, ethical investment and there is the potential to develop suitable new products and routes that are attractive to institutions and other similar investors. The Scottish government is committed to removing barriers which hinder the development of new long-term funding options and put Scottish housing at a financial disadvantage.”
Scottish ministers are studying Welsh assembly plans for a housing investment trust to attract investment from pension funds and life companies.
The Welsh government believes that issuing housing bonds will help it to meet its target of building 6,500 affordable homes by next year.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Have a great holiday!
And if you fight it, they have guns, courts, and laws.
What is the difference again between the mob and the government? I forget.
/johnny
I think this is the tipping point, the pensions.
Those that were promised them by the municipalities that underfunded them, and the rest of us with 401k’s
Someone’s going to pay for someone else’s retirement...
Wonder who?
/johnny
Mine's not.
Caveat Emptor whenever anyone is selling an "ethical investment".
So the working folks in the UK who paid taxes all of their lives to support “council houses” (the projects) are having their pensions put at risk to build more free housing for whom? The ever-growing ranks of those who won’t work? Illegal immigrants?
Where would you put your money? In a fund investing in the bonds of S&P 500 companies paying in excess of 5% a year, or in the bond fund of a country that is going broke and paying less than 4.5% a year?
From Wikipedia: “In Scotland, council estates are known as schemes.”
A fitting name...
/johnny
The mob is trying to make a profit and looks out for itself.
johnny
Nope.
Mine's not. Don't you work for the man? Cop or something?
Your post makes no sense.
what the diff between the Mob and the Govt?
The Mob would run the Govt more honestly and competently.
Oh yea, this will end well.
This was nearly twenty years ago. Governmental agencies will try to steal every pile of money they can find.
Yup, you got it, that appears to be the plan. The only real money left is in pension plans so naturally our "leaders" will find all sorts of ways to "invest" it.
...swingeing budget cuts...
Wasn't that in a Wayne's World movie?
Adj. 1. swingeing - severe; punishingly bad; “swingeing taxation”; “swingeing damages awarded by the judge”
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