Greater Manchester Pension Fund, which last year became the first UK pension fund to assess and report on the impact performance of its local investment portfolios, has released it’s second report using the Place-Based Impact Investing (PBII) Reporting Framework.

Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF) today released a report produced by The Good Economy (TGE) using the industry-endorsed reporting methodology known as the Place-Based Impact Investing (PBII) Reporting Framework. The report provides an independent assessment of the place-based impact of the GMPF’s local investment portfolios.

Councillor Gerald Cooney, Chair of GMPF, said: “At GMPF, we place importance on assessing the risk, financial return and social, economic and environmental impacts of every local investment we make. We believe this represents a responsible way to invest. The report is timely, with the wider national focus on the Local Government Pension Scheme and investing more in the UK and locally. By understanding what impacts are being achieved from our local investments, our aim in publishing this report is to hold ourselves accountable for the continual improvements we seek to make. We hope to encourage other investors to scale-up their local and regional investments by sharing our experience and working with others looking to contribute to sustainable economic development across the United Kingdom.”

Sarah Forster, CEO and co-Founder of The Good Economy, said: “We applaud GMPF for their pioneering approach to local investment and their commitment to transparent reporting. By using a standardised reporting framework that prioritises consistency, transparency, and comparability, GMPF is paving the way for the private capital markets to effectively measure and understand the true impact of their investments. This shift towards place-based impact reporting recognises that investment success should be measured not only by financial returns, but also by the real world outcomes achieved. By zooming in on the underlying investments, we were able to establish direct connections between GMPF’s investment decisions, the strategies employed by the fund managers and the subsequent real-world outcomes and benefits to the people, communities, and economy of Greater Manchester and the North West.”

The report’s findings also have a wider national audience, given the Government’s national renewal strategy and the expectation on asset owners to increase their allocations to local and regional projects within the UK.

View full report here

Deep Dive Case Studies

This year, TGE conducted four in-depth case studies with the following fund managers: CBRE Investment Management, Mercia, Resonance and Alpha Real Capital. These case studies offer a deeper insight into the impact of GMPF’s investments. We trace the flow of capital – starting from GMPF’s allocation to the recipient fund managers, examining their investment strategies and decision-making processes, and following through to the underlying investments and the real-world outcomes and benefits experienced by people and communities.

Independent Assurance

To increase confidence in the quality of data on which portfolio-level analysis is based, TGE conducted an independent assurance of the credibility and reliability of selected disclosures reported by investment managers using a leading sustainability assurance standard (AA1000 AS v3).

PBII Reporting Framework

What is the PBII Reporting Framework?

The PBII Reporting Framework is an approach to reporting that uses a ‘place’ lens to enable asset managers and owners to report on the contribution they are making at a local, regional and national level using a common, consistent and transparent approach to reporting across asset classes. The approach was developed by The Good Economy with the support of the PBII working group comprising Local Government Pension Funds (LGPS), fund managers and the Impact Investing Institute.

The framework has been designed to report on UK investments but is readily adaptable to report in globally. The Good Economy produces a range of PBII reports – from simple dashboards to award-winning publications.

Download factsheet or get in touch to discuss your requirements