George Osborne, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, has confirmed that the government is to hold talks with local government pension schemes to overhaul their structure and create “half a dozen British wealth funds” to invest in regional infrastructure projects.

Speaking at the 2015 Conservative Party Conference on October 5, Osborne criticised the current set-up, which consists of 89 funds in England and Wales encompassing some £190 billion in assets, saying that they are costly to run and do not invest enough in infrastructure projects.