BT pension scheme’s decision to invest substantial sums in its newly relaunched Hermes Fund Managers business is a brave manoeuvre. Not as brave, perhaps, as UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s attempt to secure growth through state expenditure, but not dissimilar.

Like the British Treasury, the scheme sponsored by the UK telecoms group has hefty liabilities to service and needs to economise. Last December, its accounting deficit more than doubled to £9.3bn. The sponsor is currently injecting £525m a year to keep things ticking over.