Last week, The Daily Telegraph's economics editor George Trefgarne announced his resignation as trustee to the Telegraph staff pension plan through the pages of the newspaper. He said he was weary of the codes of practice, form-filling, consultations, legal expenses and fines forced on the movement by the government.

He condemned the Pensions Act and regulator David Norgrove, who has indicated pension fund deficits should be regarded as a debt owed to schemes by their sponsors.