SPP – Increasing impact at a time of 'transformational change' for the industry

XPS Group's Sophia Singleton took over as president of the SPP at the start of June 2024, just a week after the then-prime minister Rishi Sunak announced a surprise UK general election during a rain-soaked speech outside Downing Street.

Since the general election on 4 July 2024, Singleton says we have had two years dominated by a government with a real focus on pensions – having seen a raft of consultations, pension reviews, a new Pensions Commission and the Pension Schemes Act among others.

Singleton, who handed over the role of SPP president to Hymans Robertson's Calum Cooper yesterday (1 June), says she is proud of the role the SPP has played in helping shape the changes that have been seen – pointing to the work done by the organisation and its members to help stimulate policy analysis and debate in order to get best outcomes for members.

She points towards the SPP's high profile and successful collaboration with the Association of Pension Lawyers (APL), Association of Consulting Actuaries (ACA) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to help ensure an industry informed solution to the challenges presented by the Virgin Media case.

Singleton says the SPP also proved instrumental in ensuring the Pension Protection Fund's admin levy was abolished and was central to helping ensure flexibility around the general levy was included in the Pension Schemes Act.

The body has also worked with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to ensure an exemption for pension admin professionals in relation to the new HMRC tax adviser registration requirements and also played a key role in helping modify the mandation clause in the Pension Schemes Act, seeing a more moderate approach adopted by the government.

Singleton also points to the thought leadership work the SPP has done over the past two years – publishing a range of thought leadership papers, reports that were regularly referenced in parliament, particularly as the Pension Schemes Act went through the legislative process.

Singleton says: "We've had a profile and really helped shape what has happened over the last two years."

Diversity

During Singleton's time in office, the SPP has also worked hard on initiatives to help the industry become more diverse – publishing its Inclusive Futures series of papers, conducting an industrywide survey on apprenticeships and hosting numerous events to promote better understanding of DEI and to promote best practice. The SPP has also continued to support early careers professionals with a networking programme and dedicated range of events.

Singleton says: "I firmly believe that diversity should run through everything we do in our working lives – we need to think about who is in the room and who is being enabled."

The SPP's efforts in this area have culminated in it being shortlisted for a number of awards – including the Outstanding Employee Network of the Year category at the British Diversity Awards 2026; and the Diversity & Inclusion Excellence category at the FT Advisor Workplace Excellence Awards 2026.

Increasing impact

Cooper praises the work done by the SPP over the past two years – adding that, during his term as SPP president, he would seek to build on the strong foundations Singleton has laid and make sure the SPP continues to collaborate effectively and make sure that industry voices are heard when it matters.

He says his key area of focus would be delivering impact. He says: "It is about how we harness the diversity of the voice and the profile raising and policy and engagement we've had with senior influencers to make increasingly more impact – not to necessarily do more, but to make more impact and improve the value of pensions to savers."

Cooper says the next two years will see the provisions of the Pension Schemes Act being put into place, but also says there is still a lot of transformational redesign and system shaping to come – including the pensions dashboards, further work on collective defined contribution, defined benefit run-on innovation and the work of the Pensions Commission.

He notes: "My mission is for the professionals in pensions to have an impact in improving pensions during this time of transformational change, as well as making sure that what's coming with the Pension Schemes Act works well."

Cooper adds: "When we look back in two years' time, I want the SPP's members to feel confident that the voice of pensions did make an impact during this time of change, that we were heard at the moments that matter and that the voice of pension professionals was at the heart of the changes that improve pensions."

Collaboration

Singleton says one of the key things she tried to foster during her time in office – an area of work that Cooper will build on – is embracing collaboration across the industry.

She says: "We have got a large number of industry bodies and we can work together and to drive the impact that Calum talks about – fostering that kind of collaboration where it really can help is important."

She says it was this sort of successful collaboration the SPP had seen with its work on the Virgin Media case – adding that it would be important to continue to explore areas where the SPP can collaborate and "add weight" where it is needed.

Singleton adds the SPP has also made progress on modernising itself internally – allowing its council to focus more on areas like collaboration and policy impact and less on day-to-day operational matters.

Cooper agrees collaboration is a really important element of driving impact – also pointing to the "tremendous" work done by the SPP's 11 technical committees and teams of professional volunteers.

Pension challenges

Moving on to some of the big challenges facing pensions, Cooper says adequacy and inclusion top his list.

On the adequacy front, Cooper says people are not saving enough for retirement at a time when financial resilience is also a challenge – noting the cost of living crisis; that one in ten people have no emergency funds, with one in three having less than £1,000; and that property ownership is in decline.

He says, while the solution is more money, he believes it will take some nuance to solve the adequacy problem in the right way.

Cooper says that, allied to this, inclusion is the second challenge facing pensions – particularly when it comes to groups such as the self-employed, women, carers and low earners.

He says: "We've got a system that has been designed by people that generally have a different sort of long-term career stability, a stability that many of those in the system don't benefit from."

Cooper thinks the solution will involve significant innovation as well as collaboration. He says: "We can't solve this alone. We can't solve it just as the professionals, although the voice of the professionals will be a critical component. It's about the employers, savers, government and other industry bodies as well."

Singleton agrees with Cooper on the issue of adequacy and inclusion – adding that the Pensions Commission will help with these issues, as would the industry working together to develop answers.

She says another key challenge for the industry will be the implementation of the Pension Schemes Act.

Singleton says: "The Pension Schemes Act is a great enabler and very positive, but it's always about the devil in the detail, and there's a lot to be delivered over the next five years."

She notes there are some challenges with the government's current roadmap – adding some revisions would be "very welcome" – and adds it is incumbent on the pensions industry to engage constructively with government to ensure what the roadmap sets out is deliverable.

Singleton notes industry collaboration will be vital. She notes: "Bringing together representation from across the industry will be very important here to make sure we can we get the sequencing right, we get all the enablers and things we need in place in order to be able to deliver that roadmap."