The UK's new Conservative government will restart its stalled push for cost-savings in the £226 billion Local Government Pension Scheme, a former pensions minister has predicted, including the nuclear option of forcing the schemes to invest in low-cost index-tracking funds.

John Hutton, a former work and pensions secretary under Tony Blair, and author of an influential 2011 report into public sector pensions for the Conservative-led government, said he was "pretty confident the hiatus must now be coming to an end".