Pension Funds Online

The Pensions Archive: Resourcing a National Success Story

The story of the development of occupational pension schemes gives a fascinating insight into social and economic change in this country. Since the first schemes began in the 1860s many employers, companies, trades unions, individuals, representational and professional bodies have made their contribution to developing schemes that have helped millions of people enjoy a better retirement. However, it is a story at risk of being forgotten. The years of progression and success are in danger of being hidden behind the damaging headlines of company failures which have led to some employees losing a significant part of their pensions.

That is why the Pensions Archive matters. It will preserve the history of a financial concept that has changed the lives of millions for the better. It will provide a resource for study and investigation that is of value to students and academics as well as the public in general. It will also provide a point of reference for those involved with running pension schemes.

The project was announced in August 2002 after I had taken a number of soundings over the previous twelve months that established there was general support for the idea. Towards the end of 2002 following discussions I had whilst Chairman of the Advisory Council of The Occupational Pensions Defence Union and Professor David Blake of the Pensions Institute, a Steering Group under my Chairmanship was established and it held its first meeting in January 2003. During 2003 discussions took place with several universities and in December 2003 the decision was taken to work with City University, London to establish the Archive.

City University offered to provide space for the Archive to be constructed in its own secure area of the University Library on the fifth floor of the main campus in Northampton Square EC1. This location was chosen because of its proximity to and historical connection with the City of London. Even closer to the City, in Bunhill Row, is the Cass Business School, City University’s own Business School. In January 2004, the Pensions Institute moved there bringing with it expertise in pension economics to complement Cass’s existing expertise in finance, insurance, risk and actuarial science.

The Pensions Archive Trust was incorporated as a charitable company limited by guarantee in August 2005. Alastair Ross Goobey became its first President and gave the inaugural Ross Goobey lecture at Cass Business School at the end of October 2005. An appeal was launched for funds on that occasion to finance the construction and running of the Archive.

The Objects of the Trust are to:

• establish and maintain a library and archive relating to all matters affecting the management and development of occupational pensions and personal pensions in the United Kingdom and other countries which might have a relevance to pension provision in the United Kingdom.
• further education in pensions knowledge.

In planning the Pensions Archive a close relationship has been developed with Cass Business School and the needs of today’s students have been taken into account. As a result it was decided to allocate financial resources to capturing material electronically to give easier and wider access to it.

Last year discussions took place with the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) run by the City of London Corporation which have concluded in agreement being reached to establish the Pensions Archive within their existing facilities at 40 Northampton Road, London EC1. The savings achieved by using existing facilities will be allocated to the development of a website giving electronic access to material.

The LMA is the second largest archive service in the UK (after the National Archives); all its collections are designated as being of national importance by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. It has 79km of existing collections that include the archives of many businesses (including railway companies), charities, associations, religious and cultural organisations as well as local authorities from the Metropolitan Board of Works in the nineteenth century to the Greater London Council and Inner London Education Authority in the twentieth. These collections hold a large untapped source of information relating to pensions which could be added to the new material on pensions coming to the LMA through the Trust.

The LMA will be able to provide the infrastructure and management expertise to support the project, both in terms of professional archive and conservation knowledge and management and also in terms of an organisation which has collected, cared for and promoted archive collections since the nineteenth century. The LMA has undertaken that archives deposited by, or on behalf of the Trust would be managed to the highest standards of professional care by archivists, conservators, librarians and interpretation professionals who work to national and international standards. A project archivist, sponsored by the Trust, will be employed by the City of London and directly supervised by LMA managers.

The archive collections will be stored in the LMA strong rooms which are specially designed and run to national standards for archive storage from where they will be produced for the public to see. They will be catalogued onto the LMA’s bespoke archive cataloguing software, the latest version of which is due to go on line this year.

The Trust and the LMA have set up a joint liaison committee with representation drawn from both organisations to take the proposals forward. The two organisations feel that bringing together their respective experience in archiving and pensions will be of considerable benefit to the Pensions Archive project. They also feel their connections with the City of London are very relevant. A large number of firms and companies connected with the City provide services to pension schemes and on the educational side the Lord Mayor is Chancellor of the City University.

The first Pension Archive collections it is planned to place at the LMA are those of The National Association of Pension Funds and those of the late George Ross Goobey, as well as the complete set of the 30 PFA directories. Other collections related to pensions will be very welcome. I believe the Pensions Archive will have a secure and long term future at the LMA providing information about the history of pensions.