Alex Burghart has been announced as minister for pensions and growth, taking up the position formerly held by Guy Opperman.
The Conservative MP for Brentwood and Ongar will work alongside Chloe Smith, who has been appointed the new Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
Burghart’s appointment comes amid growing market turbulence, as the Bank of England announced emergency measures to support the gilt market and calm fears of a pension fund sell-off.
The pensions industry has warned that Burghart will need to be in it “for the long haul”, with a number of different areas all vying for his attention and provide “reassurance to savers” around their pensions.
Jon Greer, head of retirement policy at Quilter, said: “Many of those who have taken on the role of pensions minister have seen it as a stepping stone to a job in the Treasury. It’s crucial that if Burghart does hold any such ambitions that they are put on the backburner for the foreseeable future to give some much-needed stability to the post.
“Only Opperman and Sir Steve Webb have held the role for a consequential period of time in the last few years and the role requires long tenure. Any change of course when it comes to retirement policy and the state pension system demands an enormous amount of time to implement and any minister needs to be at the helm for the duration to ensure there are no unintended consequences, so Burghart must be in it for the long haul.”
Greer said Burghart must now focus on grasping the nuances of the upcoming pensions dashboard and keep it “ticking over to completion”.
Greer added: “Although Opperman has been an influential figure in driving a number of considerable projects and policies like the dashboard, he may feel that he could have enacted more change on the pension landscape had we been living in slightly calmer times. Similarly, progress in areas such as Automatic Enrolment require cross-departmental collaboration and Burghart must be willing to push the Treasury to tackle these problems.
“Opperman should be proud of his time as pensions minister and has advocated for more customer engagement with pensions, so people better understand these important products and also get value for money. Burghart has big shoes to fill and needs to hit the ground running.”
Kate Smith, head of pensions at Aegon, welcomed the appointment of Burghart, but said the new minister will have “many issues vying for attention.”
Smith said: “He will have a lot on his plate, including providing reassurance to savers in these current tumultuous times. Pension policy has been a hive of activity in recent years, and there’s still much unfinished business.
“The new Pensions Minister will bring fresh thinking and new ideas to an already busy ‘to do’ list. Top priorities for the new minister include getting pension dashboards over the line, continued focus on raising pension awareness, introducing a plan to implement the recommendations of the 2017 review of auto-enrolment, finding pension solutions for the self-employed, progressing with the proposed Value of Money framework, and working across government and regulators to better support pension savers with retirement decision making.”
Smith called upon Burghart to work closely with the Treasury on any review of pension tax allowances, specifically the lifetime allowance and money purchase annual allowance to enable and incentivise pension savings.
