Ryan Shorthouse, Andrew Harrop and Sam Robinson

January 2020

Pensions policy in the UK has come a long way in the last decade, with bold and necessary reforms such as automatic enrolment being driven by the recommendations of the famous Turner Commission and the consensus it generated. But the work of the Turner Commission is incomplete. Auto-enrolment contribution rates remain too low to guarantee a secure retirement. The economy has undergone profound changes, such as the rise of self-employment and stagnating wages. Fifteen years after the Turner Commission reported, the cross-party consensus on pensions is at breaking point, with deep disagreements on the overall direction of reform. Now more than ever, pensions policy needs a long-term, strategic vision underpinned by cross-party buy-in. This report brings together leading thinkers and decision-makers from the left and right to develop a blueprint for a new pensions commission that can rebuild a shared vision for the UK’s pension system, and provide effective scrutiny and analysis of pensions policy in years to come.