The UK Government this morning published the details of its plan to bring in compulsory pension savings for all workers from 2012. Pensions providers and fund managers - the likes of Scottish Widows, Standard Life or BlackRock - might be forgiven for thinking this is unambiguously good news for them, bringing millions of captive new customers. But it's not as simple as that.

The government had already confirmed it was pressing on with Labour's plan to introduce auto-enrolment into pensions in last week's Spending Review. There were two new principal developments today; workers will start paying in once they earn £7,500 a year (it had been mooted it could be higher) and the very smallest companies, those with under 10 staff, will be included.