The Six LGPS Pools: A 2026 Guide for Fund Managers

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The LGPS pools in 2026 are six asset pools that manage investments for the UK's Local Government Pension Scheme: LGPS Central, Border to Coast Pensions Partnership, Northern LGPS, London CIV, Local Pensions Partnership Investments (LPPI), and the Wales Pension Partnership. Following government reform, the original eight pools became six, with ACCESS and Brunel winding down and their member funds moving to the survivors.

Key Takeaways

• The LGPS is the largest funded public pension system in the UK, with 98 funds holding roughly $652 billion, of which around $547 billion sits with the 86 England and Wales funds required to pool (Dakota Marketplace modelling of fund annual reports, 2025 to 2026).
• Eight pools became six: the government declined to approve ACCESS and Brunel under its Fit for the Future reforms, and both are winding down, with member funds reallocating mainly to LGPS Central, Border to Coast, and LPPI (IPE, 2026).
• LGPS Central and Border to Coast are emerging as the giants, with member funds representing roughly $165 billion and $115 billion respectively aligned to each pool in Dakota's mapping.
• Manager selection is migrating from 86 individual committees to six professional investment teams, but the transition runs through 2027, and private markets commitments still surface fund by fund in committee papers today.
• Scottish funds and Northern Ireland sit outside the pooling regime entirely, leaving roughly $106 billion that fund managers can still access directly.

What is LGPS pooling and why did eight pools become six?

LGPS pooling is the UK government's programme to consolidate the investments of the 86 Local Government Pension Scheme funds in England and Wales into a small number of FCA-regulated investment companies. The policy goal is scale: lower fees, internal management, and bigger allocations to private markets and UK assets.

The original eight pools were set up from 2015. Under the government's Fit for the Future reforms, every pool had to meet new minimum standards, including FCA authorisation and full delegation of manager selection. Two pools did not get approval to continue: ACCESS, which served 11 funds across eastern and south-eastern England, and Brunel Pension Partnership, which served the South West. Both are now winding down, and their member funds are transitioning to the remaining six (Top1000funds, 2026).

The regulatory clock is now running. Pooling regulations came into force on 30 June 2026, funds must publish new investment strategy statements by 31 March 2027, and the two pools still operating under joint committee structures, Northern LGPS and the Wales Pension Partnership, must obtain full FCA authorisation by 30 September 2027. Asset transitions are expected to continue into 2027.

Who are the six LGPS pools?

The table below shows the six pools with the member funds and assets aligned to each, based on Dakota's modelling of fund annual reports and committee papers. Figures are total member-fund assets aligned to each pool, not assets already transitioned onto pool platforms, converted at £1 = $1.36. Ex-ACCESS and ex-Brunel alignments reflect announced intentions and are still completing.

A further 12 funds, the 11 Scottish funds and Northern Ireland's NILGOSC, sit outside the England and Wales pooling regime with roughly $106 billion between them.

LGPS Central

LGPS Central is becoming the largest pool by member-fund assets, with 19 funds representing roughly $165 billion aligned to it in Dakota's mapping, anchored by the ~$29.1 billion West Midlands Pension Fund. The pool absorbed a significant share of the former ACCESS membership on top of its original Midlands base.

The scale jump is transformative: a pool built for the Midlands is now integrating funds from the east and south of England, including large transitions already visible in committee papers. Oxfordshire's committee minutes, for example, record a ~$1.8 billion transition of portfolios from Brunel to LGPS Central during the second quarter of 2026.

For managers, LGPS Central is now one of the most consequential manager-research relationships in UK institutional investment, with sub-fund launches and manager appointments accelerating as assets arrive.

Border to Coast Pensions Partnership

Border to Coast is the most established of the large pools, with 14 member funds representing roughly $115 billion aligned, including Tyne and Wear ($18.1 billion) and South Yorkshire ($15.1 billion). It runs a mix of internal management and external sub-funds across equities, credit, and a large private markets programme.

Border to Coast is also the most active pool in Dakota's mandate-event ledger, with 75 logged events, more than any other LGPS institution. Recent activity includes a ~$544 million acquisition of 866 UK single-family rental homes with Aberdeen Investments in August 2026, part of a deliberate UK real estate build-out.

Its external manager appointments concentrate real selection power: when AllianceBernstein replaced a terminated manager on the pool's Global Equity Alpha sub-fund in April 2026, the change flowed through to every partner fund invested in that sub-fund.

Northern LGPS

Northern LGPS is the smallest pool by fund count and among the largest by assets: just three members, Greater Manchester ($43.9 billion), West Yorkshire ($27.2 billion), and Merseyside (~$15.0 billion), totalling roughly $86 billion. Greater Manchester is the largest single LGPS fund in the country.

The pool still operates as a joint committee rather than an FCA-authorised company, and it has until 30 September 2027 to change that. In practice its member funds retain more direct control of manager selection than funds in the company-structure pools, and significant internal management, notably at West Yorkshire, keeps external mandates selective.

That makes Northern LGPS the scheme's most fund-driven pool: managers should engage the three underlying funds as much as the pool itself.

London CIV

London CIV serves the most members of any pool: 33 funds, the London boroughs plus the City of London, representing roughly $78 billion. Individual funds are small by LGPS standards, typically $1 billion to $3 billion, but the platform aggregates them into meaningful sub-fund mandates.

The pool's sub-fund lineup is where manager turnover shows. Dakota's ledger records a wave of 2026 activity as boroughs moved money between London CIV sub-funds, including terminations of active global equity products and new allocations to value and passive alternatives across Westminster, Camden, Kensington and Chelsea, and Hammersmith and Fulham.

For fund managers, London CIV is a genuine platform sale: one appointment can attract allocations from dozens of borough funds, and losing a sub-fund mandate works the same way in reverse.

Covering the LGPS? Dakota Marketplace models all 98 LGPS funds and all six pools directly from committee papers, investment strategy statements, and annual reports: manager-level holdings for 90 funds, strategy and adviser detail for 97, and a live ledger of 740+ mandate events mapped to Dakota accounts. Book a demo.

Local Pensions Partnership Investments (LPPI)

LPPI grew from two founding funds, Lancashire (~$16.3 billion) and the London Pensions Fund Authority, into a nine-member pool representing roughly $68 billion after taking on a group of former Brunel funds from the South West, including Avon and Devon. The pool has opened a Bristol office to serve its new members (Pensions Expert, 2026).

LPPI is distinctive for how much it internalises: it runs pooled vehicles with substantial internal management and delegated manager selection, closer to an outsourced CIO than a fund supermarket. Member funds hand over implementation almost entirely.

The wind-down of Brunel made LPPI the natural home for funds that wanted the fullest version of delegation, and its manager roster decisions now carry the weight of nine funds' assets.

Wales Pension Partnership

The Wales Pension Partnership pools all eight Welsh LGPS funds, roughly $35 billion, with Carmarthenshire as host authority. Like Northern LGPS, it operates as a joint arrangement and faces the 30 September 2027 FCA authorisation deadline.

Its sub-funds are run by external managers appointed through the pool, and 2026 has brought visible turnover: Dakota's ledger records Lazard appointed to a global sustainable equity sub-fund following a termination, and a BlackRock ESG-screened passive fund launched for Welsh funds in late 2025.

WPP remains one of the more accessible pools for external managers precisely because it manages nothing in-house: every sub-fund is someone's mandate to win or lose.

Which LGPS assets sit outside the pools?

Roughly $106 billion of LGPS assets are not covered by the England and Wales pooling regime. Scotland's 11 funds, led by Strathclyde ($42.6 billion) and Lothian ($13.9 billion), face no pooling requirement and continue to appoint managers directly through their own committees. Northern Ireland's NILGOSC (~$15.0 billion) likewise runs its own arrangements.

These funds are increasingly valuable prospects: they combine LGPS-scale assets with committee-level decision-making that the English funds are giving up. Strathclyde alone is larger than the Wales Pension Partnership's entire eight-fund membership.

Scottish consolidation is a live policy debate, but as of August 2026 no pooling mandate exists. Managers with UK public-sector coverage should treat Scotland and Northern Ireland as a separate, directly addressable channel.

What does pooling mean for fund managers raising capital?

The buyer is changing, but slower than the headlines suggest. Listed-asset manager selection is consolidating into six pool investment teams, and winning or losing a pool sub-fund now moves multiple funds' money at once. At the same time, private markets commitments, strategic asset allocation, and consultant appointments still originate fund by fund, decided in committee meetings whose papers are public.

The transition itself is the opportunity. ACCESS and Brunel portfolios are being re-tendered as they move, legacy mandates are being reviewed, and every strategy statement in England and Wales must be rewritten by March 2027. Manager churn of this scale is rare in any institutional market, and it is happening on a published timetable.

Dakota tracks both layers, the six pools and all 98 underlying funds, with mandate events logged from committee papers as they publish. Our companion pieces on the largest LGPS funds and what LGPS funds are buying in 2026 map the fund-level detail.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many LGPS pools are there in 2026?

There are six LGPS pools in 2026: LGPS Central, Border to Coast Pensions Partnership, Northern LGPS, London CIV, Local Pensions Partnership Investments, and the Wales Pension Partnership. The original eight became six when the government declined to approve ACCESS and Brunel, which are winding down.

What happened to the Brunel Pension Partnership and ACCESS?

Brunel and ACCESS were not approved to continue under the government's Fit for the Future pooling standards, and both are being wound down. Most former Brunel funds are moving to LPPI, with some portfolios transitioning to LGPS Central, while ACCESS members are reallocating mainly to LGPS Central and Border to Coast. Transitions continue through 2027.

How much money do the LGPS pools manage?

Member funds aligned to the six pools represent roughly $547 billion of England and Wales LGPS assets, led by LGPS Central ($165 billion aligned) and Border to Coast ($115 billion aligned). Assets actually transitioned onto pool platforms are lower and rising as legacy mandates move across.

Do LGPS funds still choose their own investment managers?

Partially, and it varies by pool. Listed-asset manager selection increasingly sits with pool investment teams, but funds still set strategic asset allocation, appoint consultants, and in many cases make private markets commitments directly. Northern LGPS funds and the unpooled Scottish and Northern Irish funds retain the most direct control.

Are Scottish LGPS funds part of the pooling requirement?

No. The pooling regime covers the 86 funds in England and Wales. Scotland's 11 funds, including Strathclyde at roughly $42.6 billion, and Northern Ireland's NILGOSC appoint managers directly and together represent about $106 billion outside the pools.

How should a fund manager approach an LGPS pool?

Map the pool's sub-fund range against your strategy first, then track its manager-search activity: pool appointments are researched processes, often consultant-supported, and they replace dozens of individual fund decisions. For private markets, engage both the pool and the underlying funds, because commitments still surface in fund committee papers.

Ready to map the LGPS before your competitors do?

Six pools, 98 funds, and a re-tendering wave that runs to 2027: the LGPS is the most structurally active institutional market in Europe right now. Dakota Marketplace models the entire universe from primary sources, with manager-level holdings, adviser relationships, and a live mandate-event feed mapped to Dakota accounts.

Book a Demo to see the full LGPS dataset, from pool sub-fund lineups to fund-level committee intelligence.

Related reading: Top 10 Largest LGPS Funds in the UK · What LGPS Funds Are Buying in 2026 · Top 10 Public Pension Funds in the UK