The National Employment Savings Trust, a new public pension plan in the UK that could eventually control assets of around £150bn, will ask the companies it invests in to pay all staff at least the Living Wage, a top-up to the minimum wage backed by several think-tanks, charities and politicians.

Nest, which underpins the UK government's plans to enrol every worker into a workplace pension, is set to become one of the country's biggest funds with up to five million members.