Gavin Neilson

Few would disagree that our NHS is on its knees and needs fundamental reform.   What’s important now, is how we get to the crux of the challenge and identify potential solutions. As Rt Hon Wes Streeting MP eloquently puts it – diagnosing the problem before we write the prescription. Lord Darzi's 2018 report, "Better Health and Care for All: A 10-Point Plan for the 2020s", highlights his expertise and visionary approach to healthcare reform. Known for his impactful 2008 report, Lord Darzi demonstrates his ability to address the critical challenges facing the NHS. His emphasis on radical simplification, a shift from a "diagnose and treat" model to a "predict and prevent" one, increased funding, and adopting technological innovation, resonates with Evergreen Life's mission to empower individuals with their health data to live healthy happy lives. By collaborating, we can drive the transformation necessary to secure a sustainable and person-centric future for the NHS. #Healthcare #NHS #Innovation #DigitalHealth #EvergreenLife #LordDarz https://lnkd.in/egjaA_nJ

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⚠The DUKES of HAZARD ⚠ Amid the flurry of energy-related announcements from the new government, yesterday DESNZ released DUKES: the Digest of UK Energy Statistics report - an annual delight for anyone with nerdy energy tendencies. What does it tell us about the big picture for UK energy at the outset of a new political cycle and the challenges ahead for Great British Energy? My no.1 takeaway is the continued rise in net import dependency, rising 3.8 percentage points in 2023 to 40.8%. It's trending steadily up since a golden decade of net exports ended in 2003. This increasingly hazardous picture comes despite continued falls in UK energy demand - of which oil remains 39% and gas 36% - in light of deindustrialisation, higher energy prices and recent warmer temperatures. Why is this happening? In the ultra-mature UK North Sea, production is falling off a cliff, with oil down 36% since 2019 alone and gas near a record low. Of course, that has no bearing on how much is consumed. Ordinarily you'd expect fiscal terms to be adapted to facilitate smaller or more challenging domestic projects, but the opposite has happened. Lack of new investment driven by fiscal changes in the last parliament will only be exacerbated by the latest ones announced this week. Is it a coincidence that imported energy production emissions aren't counted in the domestic emissions stats so beloved of our leaders (the one about total emissions falling by around half since 1990)? Feels like a case of "out of sight, out of mind", or maybe Goodhart's Law: a measure that becomes a target ceases to be a good measure. The inevitable impact will be further reduction in domestic supply, pushing that 40.8% import dependency ever higher over the next decade. While we'll always be part of a complex, interdependent web of cross-border energy trade with (mostly) friendly partners, that will increase the UK's well-publicised budgetary constraints, reduce international competitiveness, accelerate job losses and heighten vulnerability to price shocks from volatile commodity prices. It's notable that the largest shares of both oil and gas imports come from Norway, which draws partly on the same North Sea basin (and let's not mention their SWF...). Norwegian gas meets 40% of total UK gas demand. And the fully energy self-sufficient USA provides both the 2nd largest shares of both oil and gas (via LNG), materially increasing the emissions footprint vs domestic production. Another notable data point: renewable generation was flat y-o-y at 136 TWh, with generation capacity increases offset by worse conditions. Renewables account for 15.5% of final consumption. Encouragingly, renewables' share of generation rose to 46.4%, but electricity is only ~20% of total consumption. While the UK remains the heat decarbonisation laggard with only 9.4% of heat produced renewably (btw, are we really still counting burning wood - especially imported wood - as "renewable"?!). GBE has its work cut out!

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Thoroughly enjoyed todays Pensions for Purpose annual symposium, another awesome and hugely informative event & great to feel part of this energetic and growing community. Huge thanks to Karen Shackleton Charlotte O'Leary Stephen Darlington Richard Giles David Brown and the Pensions for Purpose team. Key takeaways - a mixture of stark truths, optimism & pride at the innovation and scope for positive impact across our industry: - Systems change (regulation, policy, government underpins) are required before capital is truly unlocked to support real change (Housing, Climate, Health) - Financial markets aren’t yet fully reflecting climate risk - asset owners need to better utilise climate scenario analysis - Climate resilience - huge focus on technological innovation but this is an area thats been chronically underinvested, particularly in the water sector - there is an underappreciated and signficant role for nature restoration to play in mitigating flood risk and the provision of clean water supply. - Investment funds that simply underweight high emitting sectors and overweight financials and tech and call themselves sustainable are no longer fit for purpose - real world change comes from investing in the transition - we can’t starve the high emitting sectors of the capital they require to transition - The next energy transition to green power needs to happen in a quarter of the time that historic energy transitions have taken place - this presents big opportunities to invest & meet fiduciary duty. Sustainable infra delivers inflation linked income and capital growth with impact. - Are we as an asset management industry building viable impact investing vehicles for asset owners? There is a trade off - it doesn’t need to be a market return trade-off, but there is a risk trade off for asset owners requiring a typical benchmark relative return - Deployment at scale and pace is the real challenge, but innovation will give us the solutions we need to hit targets. - The scale of decarbonisation needed to hit Paris is daunting - from the tonnage itself (50% by 2030 - equiv of 30 gigatonnes), to a massive increase in capacity to provide the hardware to upgrade the grid - Clean energy alone will not meet this - Greenhouse Gas Removals at scale & utilising technology not yet deployed might - This will be the largest peactime transformation ever attempted in the UK in terms of pace and scale. £1.5tr of investment is required in the UK over the next 25 years to meet our targets.

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Great to see this recognition for our market leading Fiduciary Management Evaluation team and the value that they have been adding to clients. If anyone hasn't seen them in action then their recently published annual study is a great example of what they produce: https://lnkd.in/eBqBG3n3

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Whoever wins the General Election, capital markets and investment are going to be key to delivering their priorities given little capacity in the public purse. Investment companies are the proven bridge between investors and assets such as infrastructure and renewable energy and they can play a critical role in helping the next government achieve its ambitions for economic growth. Beyond that, as a nation, we need to save and invest more, drive better returns in our pension funds and direct more of that capital towards our domestic markets (the UK ISA was one such initiative). Investment companies are a ready made, proven (over 150 years!) solution to these challenges.

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We have all shared this same opinion, sorry not sorry but BIG Consulting Contracts are not worth the money. Now a survey shows what we all have said privately....this quote sums it up best "A survey of 702 executive staff and project managers found that of those who worked with the three biggest consultancies in corporate transformation projects, 84 percent felt they “were no help at all”. OK, so why do we all still hand over millions to McKinsey, BCG and Bain? Why is it considered safe, when it mostly doesn't work? https://lnkd.in/gvWwTW3m

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Ongoing industry consolidation can have a big impact on your business. Partner with someone who will be there for the long term. https://lnkd.in/e89yEqr6

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Today on COP29 Finance Day, Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) shared its 2024 Progress Report, highlighting big strides in transition planning this past year. With over 700 financial institutions now part of the Net-Zero Alliances, more than two-thirds have set out plans for transition.   In 2024, GFANZ has seen continued growth through Regional Networks across Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, and celebrated new Chapters in Hong Kong and Brazil.   GFANZ has also acted as the finance partner to key global initiatives driving climate-related investment and has supported the launch of the Brazilian Nature Investment Lab, the Global Capacity Building Coalition (GCBC) and the expanded efforts of the Net-Zero Data Public Utility (NZDPU).   Click through to the full report to dive into the year’s progress. The path to net zero is built on collaborative efforts and together, we’re moving forward. https://lnkd.in/dEJxC97t

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In this latest interview article by Jonathan Stapleton, IFGL Pensions Technical Manager Steve Berridge shares how the Government needs to start ‘supercharging’ pension returns in a bid to improve the value of defined contribution (DC) scheme. Read the whole article here> https://lnkd.in/ePfhG8rc   #newarticlealert #pensionreturns #ukpensions

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Pensions for Purpose is currently looking for asset managers to undertake research using the OMINDEX survey in partnership with The Maturity Institute. We recognise that finding aligned asset managers on the integration of purpose and stakeholder value is a crucial piece of the puzzle in ensuring their impact on people and planet is integrated. This is about integrity - the ability to say that your words match your actions and that you’re not afraid to ask difficult questions of yourselves. The Maturity Institute's Total Stakeholder Value (TSV) model is a leadership and management tool that links data: Human Value, Business Value and Impact. We are all on a journey and this is an opportunity for us all to learn and grow. If you are one of our asset manager members or an asset manager just interested in going through this process, please contact me directly - [email protected]. While asset managers may have their own surveys and monitoring tools, nothing beats an independent review. If you are a trustee or investment consultant, please encourage your asset managers to consider this. #totalstakeholdervalue #impact #purpose #integrity

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This recent story makes for a grim read. Nick Triggle’s BBC News article summarises the wide variety of factors impacting the health challenges we face as a nation. The 2008 financial crash, Brexit, Covid and the cost of living crisis have all played their part in the perfect storm coined as an ‘epidemic of illness’. So as Lord Bethell has quite rightly previously pointed out, what we should actually be asking is - is our NHS failing or is it simply overloaded? Another ‘gloomy’ factor I’d add to this list is the role played by big brands, profiteering from ill-advised diet and lifestyle habits, by knowingly marketing and selling ultra-processed food to the masses. Clearly, there’s an obvious link between social deprivation and poor health outcomes. But the problem is much wider than income. It spans many other influences such as education, societal norms and regulation. Surely, the best place to start is with empowering people. To reduce demand on the NHS we need to help people learn what they need to do to be well, and support them in gaining understanding of their own sickness. This will reduce demand on our overstretched system so it can survive. Do this, and in time, many of the problems we face will take care of themselves. People powered health is what’s needed for a healthier, happier nation. #NHS James Bethell

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Mantle Services has recently been featured in Professional Pensions. Mantle's Graeme Riddoch discusses Pensions Dashboards readiness and the key areas Trustees need to get to grips with. 💡 Areas covered include: ✨ Developing an overarching plan ✨The role of data ✨Estimated retirement incomes (ERI) ✨Connecting to the dashboards infrastructure Read the article below: ⬇ https://incm.pub/4665QGI #pensionsdashboards #pensions #pensionscheme

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Twenty years of covenant – what have we learned? The covenant industry is relatively young in the pensions world and yet the sponsor covenant, or promise to pay an agreed pension, is the underlying premise of all defined benefit (DB) pensions. Check out Emily Goodridge's latest article 👇 https://incm.pub/4fDGmFd #pensions #pensionscheme #employeepension #finance #retirement

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Today we published a new strategy explaining how we will use digital, data and technology to transform TPR and the pensions industry to protect savers and drive innovation. Our digital, data and technology strategy is a blueprint for how we and industry should adapt to, and embrace, changing technology and a changing pensions market. It will: • reduce unnecessary burden on pension schemes • enable effective market competition • help TPR innovate and create an environment which encourages pension schemes to do the same in savers’ interests. But we want industry’s input so will create an industry working group to agree further detail including a focus on data and the common standards needed. Read more: https://ow.ly/RC1A50TQxhU

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Putting the UK back in the shop window: Can productive finance revitalise retirement outcomes for members? Thanks to Ruston Smith - Chair of the Pensions Management Institute (PMI) for such a compelling article - from the impact of AE, consolidation in the DC space, the 'UK Famous Five', creating a value for members framework. Some great thoughts here: https://lnkd.in/eU4uzSK4

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Working with colleagues at PA Consulting to help clients cut through complexity and do better, I was interested in this FT article - https://lnkd.in/eV4Q-xei. Digging into the content of the report mentioned, I saw the authors talk about how "we're accepting mediocrity, treating customer service like it doesn't matter". It does - I 100% agree that it "damages productivity and depresses our mood". I love that our clients are asking us to help them do better, as they look outward and build the ambition and muscle to improve how they operate, and that our people practically and thoughtfully help them. It's effort well spent, with real commercial and societal reward. #operationalexcellence #dobetter #financialservices #customersupport Craig Oliver, Rodrigo Burgos, Caroline Wayman, Donald Cameron, Simon Foot, Mario Cugini, Jason Whyte, Susanne Gildberg, Stefan Knapp, Chris Spedding

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This is worth a look to begin understanding how we might arrive at a future where senior executive executives are replaced by AI. But will the fat bonuses no longer paid out to CEOs et al be shared with the workers, or will they just enrich shareholders? With AI already delivering 9X returns to the likes of Uber and Salesforce I suspect the latter. Another interesting consideration is that smaller training datasets that allow the easier development of deeper layers might bring more smaller players into the game. https://lnkd.in/gyhJFTQB

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Investment announcement: Fractory Our latest investment from SmartCap Green Fund in Fractory brings us forward on the way of transition to circular economy in industrial production. Glad to give a push to the green transition of industry as industrial activity accounts for 1/3 of the global energy demand and increasing production volumes lead to growing demand for materials. Fractory is a digital manufacturing tech platform to streamline metal fabrication services from cutting & bending to CNC machining and enables: - enhancing production machinery utilization rates in factories across the supplier network from industry average of 26% up to 80%. So, fewer machines are needed for the same production volumes. - reducing waste of materials by pooling orders and optimizing the use of existing resources.

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