Data sourced from Dakota Marketplace, the global LP and GP intelligence platform trusted by thousands of investment professionals. Learn More | Book a Demo
The LGPS investment managers held by the most Local Government Pension Scheme funds in 2026 are Legal & General Investment Management (36 funds and pools), BlackRock (27), M&G (20), Schroders (19) and J.P. Morgan Asset Management (16), based on 1,349 holdings that Dakota Marketplace has read from the funds’ own annual reports and committee papers. Below them sit about 250 managers, and the six pools now hold more listed mandates than any external firm.
Key Takeaways
- Dakota Marketplace holds 1,349 named holdings across 87 LGPS fund and pool accounts as of 22 October 2026, matched to about 250 distinct manager records (Dakota Marketplace, October 2026).
- Legal & General Investment Management is the most widely held external manager, appearing at 36 funds and pools, ahead of BlackRock (27), M&G (20), Schroders (19) and J.P. Morgan Asset Management (16).
- The pools dominate listed assets: London CIV appears in the holdings of 25 funds, and 57 of the 87 accounts hold at least one pool vehicle, so the pool is now the largest single “manager” at most England and Wales funds.
- Private markets are still bought fund by fund: about 800 of the 1,349 holdings are private equity, private credit, infrastructure or real estate vehicles, spread across 180 managers, with Partners Group, Pantheon and HarbourVest the most repeated names.
- Breadth is rare. Only 22 managers are held by five or more LGPS funds, and 150 managers appear at a single fund, which is the clearest sign of how fragmented LGPS manager selection still is.
Which managers are held by the most LGPS funds?
The league table below counts the number of distinct LGPS funds and pools whose disclosed holdings include each manager. It measures breadth across the scheme rather than assets, so it rewards firms with pooled products held in many places over firms with one very large mandate.
| Rank |
Manager |
LGPS funds and pools holding it |
Holdings recorded |
Where it shows up most |
| 1 |
Legal & General Investment Management |
36 |
94 |
Index equity, index bonds, client-specific unitised funds |
| 2 |
BlackRock |
27 |
52 |
Index equity, LDI and credit, diversified alternatives |
| 3 |
M&G Investment Management |
20 |
25 |
Real estate, private credit, long-lease property |
| 4 |
Schroders (including Schroders Greencoat) |
19 |
32 |
Real estate, renewables infrastructure, private equity |
| 5 |
J.P. Morgan Asset Management |
16 |
18 |
Infrastructure, emerging market debt, real estate |
| 6 |
UBS Asset Management |
14 |
18 |
Index equity, infrastructure, real estate |
| 7 |
Partners Group |
11 |
52 |
Private equity, multi-asset credit, real estate, infrastructure |
| 8 |
Baillie Gifford |
10 |
13 |
Active global equity |
| 9 |
IFM Investors |
10 |
10 |
Global infrastructure |
| 10 |
Octopus Capital |
9 |
9 |
Renewables and UK real assets |
| 11 |
Pantheon Ventures |
8 |
28 |
Private equity secondaries, infrastructure |
| 12 |
Gresham House |
8 |
19 |
Forestry, housing, British sustainable infrastructure |
| 13 |
CBRE Investment Management |
8 |
9 |
Real estate |
| 14 |
Longview Partners |
7 |
7 |
Active global equity |
| 15 |
Permira |
6 |
9 |
Private credit, private equity |
Five managers are held by exactly five funds each: HarbourVest Partners (28 holdings across those five, the most concentrated private equity relationship in the data), KKR, State Street Global Advisors, Stafford Capital Partners, Aberdeen, Capital Dynamics and GCM Grosvenor. Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, Newton, CQS, Arcmont, Insight Investment and Blackstone each appear at four.
Two things stand out. First, the top of the table is index and real-asset money: LGIM and BlackRock lead because almost every fund still holds passive equity or bond building blocks outside the pool, and M&G and Schroders lead the real-asset tier because UK property and renewables are still committed directly. Second, the drop-off is steep. After the top 22, the typical manager relationship in the LGPS is with one fund, and the 1,349 holdings include 150 managers that appear only once.
How much LGPS money now sits with the pools rather than external managers?
More than with any single external manager. The six pools appear in the holdings of 57 of the 87 LGPS accounts in the data, and London CIV alone is held by 25 funds, which would put it second in the external table above if it were counted as an ordinary manager.
| Pool |
Funds holding its vehicles |
Pool holdings recorded |
What those holdings are |
| London CIV |
25 |
129 |
Global equity, sustainable equity, multi-asset credit, infrastructure and private debt sub-funds |
| Border to Coast |
9 |
104 |
Listed equity, fixed income, and private markets series (private equity, infrastructure, credit) |
| Brunel Pension Partnership |
7 |
93 |
Global equity, gilts, multi-asset credit, private markets cycles |
| LGPS Central |
7 |
62 |
Climate factor equity, sustainable active equity, credit, private markets |
| Wales Pension Partnership |
7 |
54 |
Global equity, credit and private markets sub-funds |
| Local Pensions Partnership Investments |
2 |
15 |
Equity, credit and real asset pools |
| Northern LGPS |
2 |
2 |
Joint private equity and infrastructure vehicles |
The pattern follows the scheme’s structure. The Local Government Pension Scheme held £402 billion (about USD 530 billion) at 31 March 2025 across the 86 England and Wales funds, which are required to pool, plus the 11 Scottish funds and Northern Ireland’s NILGOSC, which are not (Scheme Advisory Board, scheme annual report 2025). Eight pools became six when ACCESS closed on 31 March 2026 and Brunel was wound up on 1 July 2026, with their member funds moving mainly to LGPS Central, Border to Coast and LPPI. Brunel’s 93 holdings in the data are therefore in transition, and the funds that held them are the ones most likely to be re-tendering through a new pool in 2026 and 2027.
The practical rule for fundraisers is “sell to the pool, watch the fund”. Listed equity and credit mandates are now awarded by the pool’s investment team, and the pool is the buyer. But the fund’s own pensions committee still sets strategic asset allocation, decides the pace of private markets commitments and, at most funds, still approves individual private markets vehicles. That is why the largest external relationships in the data are in private assets, not in equities.
Who are the biggest private markets managers in the LGPS?
M&G, Schroders, BlackRock and J.P. Morgan Asset Management lead on breadth, and Partners Group, Pantheon and HarbourVest lead on depth. About 800 of the 1,349 holdings are private equity, private credit, infrastructure or real estate vehicles, and 775 of all holdings are structured as limited partnerships, which is the clearest measure of how much LGPS manager selection still happens vehicle by vehicle.
| Private markets manager |
LGPS funds and pools holding it |
Private markets holdings |
Typical vehicles in the data |
| M&G Investment Management |
16 |
25 |
UK property, long-lease, real estate debt, private credit |
| Schroders (including Schroders Greencoat) |
14 |
32 |
UK real estate, renewables, private equity |
| BlackRock |
12 |
52 |
UK property, renewable power, diversified private markets |
| J.P. Morgan Asset Management |
12 |
18 |
Infrastructure Investments Fund, emerging market debt, real estate |
| Partners Group |
10 |
52 |
Global Value real estate, Multi Asset Credit series, infrastructure |
| IFM Investors |
10 |
10 |
IFM Global Infrastructure Fund |
| Octopus Capital |
9 |
9 |
Renewables, UK real assets |
| UBS Asset Management |
9 |
18 |
Infrastructure, real estate |
| Gresham House |
8 |
19 |
British Sustainable Infrastructure Funds I to III, forestry, residential |
| Pantheon Ventures |
8 |
28 |
Pantheon Access, Global Infrastructure III, secondaries programmes |
| CBRE Investment Management |
8 |
9 |
Real estate |
| Permira |
6 |
9 |
Permira Credit Solutions, Fund V |
| HarbourVest Partners |
5 |
28 |
HarbourVest Partners fund series, Dover Street secondaries, co-investment |
| KKR |
5 |
8 |
Global Infrastructure Investors II to IV, co-investments |
| Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners |
4 |
7 |
Renewables Impact Fund I and II |
Stafford Capital Partners, Capital Dynamics, GCM Grosvenor and Aberdeen each appear at five funds, and Arcmont, Blackstone and Adams Street Partners follow. In total, 180 distinct managers hold private markets positions with at least one LGPS fund or pool.
The pools’ own private markets programmes also show through. Northern LGPS, the joint vehicle of Greater Manchester, Merseyside and West Yorkshire, discloses commitments to HG Capital, Genstar Capital, Bridgepoint and Warburg Pincus. Border to Coast’s private markets series holds Brookfield Oaktree, HG Capital, StepStone, KKR, iCON Infrastructure, Arcus Infrastructure Partners, EQT and HPS Investment Partners. A manager that wins a seat in a pool programme is, in effect, being held by every partner fund at once, which is why pool private markets teams are now the highest-value relationship in the scheme for a private equity, infrastructure or private credit firm.
Book a demo of Dakota Marketplace to see which LGPS funds and pools already hold your competitors.
What does the manager map mean for fund managers raising capital from the LGPS?
Treat the LGPS as three buyers, not one. The pool investment teams buy listed equity and credit, and now run growing private markets programmes for their partner funds. The fund committees still commit directly to real estate, renewables and local or impact vehicles, and the Scottish funds and NILGOSC still select every manager themselves. The holdings data tells you which of the three you are dealing with at each fund, because a fund whose equity sits entirely in pool sub-funds is not going to hire an active equity manager directly.
Find the incumbents before you pitch. Every one of the 1,349 holdings names a vehicle, so a fundraiser can see that a fund already holds the IFM Global Infrastructure Fund, a Partners Group credit series or two HarbourVest programmes before the first meeting. The most common reason an LGPS committee declines a new manager is overlap with an existing relationship, and that overlap is now visible in advance.
Use breadth as a signal of what sells. The managers held by 10 or more funds share a profile: pooled vehicles, UK-domiciled or UK-feeder structures, a long LGPS client list that other committees can reference, and a consultant that already knows the product. A manager with none of those should expect to start with a single fund and build the reference list, which is how most of the 150 single-fund relationships in the data began.
Watch the transition funds. The former ACCESS and Brunel partner funds are moving assets into new pools through 2026 and 2027, and holdings that still show the old pool’s vehicles mark funds whose listed mandates are about to be re-selected by someone new.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which investment manager has the most LGPS clients?
Legal & General Investment Management appears in the disclosed holdings of 36 LGPS funds and pools, more than any other external manager in Dakota Marketplace’s 1,349 LGPS holdings. BlackRock (27), M&G (20), Schroders (19) and J.P. Morgan Asset Management (16) follow.
Do the LGPS pools count as investment managers?
Yes, in practice. London CIV is held by 25 funds, Border to Coast by 9, and Brunel, LGPS Central and the Wales Pension Partnership by 7 each. The pools award most listed equity and credit mandates to underlying managers, so a fund’s equity exposure usually sits in a pool sub-fund rather than with the external firm directly.
Which private markets managers do LGPS funds use most?
By number of funds, M&G (16), Schroders (14), BlackRock (12) and J.P. Morgan Asset Management (12) lead, followed by Partners Group and IFM Investors (10 each). By number of holdings, Partners Group (52), BlackRock (52), Pantheon (28) and HarbourVest (28) are the deepest private markets relationships in the data.
How many LGPS funds are there and how big is the scheme?
There are 86 funds in England and Wales, 11 in Scotland and one in Northern Ireland (NILGOSC). The England and Wales funds held £402 billion, about USD 530 billion, at 31 March 2025 according to the Scheme Advisory Board. Only the England and Wales funds are required to pool their assets.
Are LGPS manager appointments public?
Yes. Every fund publishes an annual report listing its investments and managers, and pensions committee papers record appointments, terminations and strategy reviews. Dakota Marketplace reads those documents and records each holding against the fund, with 1,349 holdings live and committee minutes and manager searches coming soon.
Where does this league table data come from?
From the LGPS funds’ own annual reports and committee papers, read and matched to manager records in Dakota Marketplace. The table counts distinct funds and pools per manager as of 22 October 2026 and is a floor, because funds are not required to name every underlying vehicle.
Ready to see which LGPS funds already hold your competitors?
The table above counts relationships; Dakota Marketplace shows them one by one. Marketplace holds 1,349 named holdings across 87 LGPS fund and pool accounts, 162 UK public pension accounts in total and 1,583 contacts at them, with committee minutes and live manager searches coming soon. You can filter by:
- Fund or pool, to see every manager and vehicle a committee has disclosed
- Manager, to see which LGPS funds hold a competitor’s products
- Asset class and vehicle structure, from index equity to LP private markets series
- Pool membership, to separate the funds still buying directly from those that have moved listed assets to a pool
If your fundraising plan includes UK local government money, the incumbent map is the shortest route to the funds with room for a new relationship. A trial goes further than this article: the contacts, the consultant on each account and the underlying holdings for every fund are all on the record.
Book a Demo to see LGPS holdings fund by fund and manager by manager.
