Getting rid of those arms company shares
The 2007 Clean Investment launch will take place in late June, with the focus on the arms company shareholdings of the 99 local authority pension schemes. While publicity around the launch might highlight the holdings as an issue for the local authorities, they are much more likely to take notice of the concerns of individual council tax payers. Very few people contact local authorities about their investments, so any approach you make – possibly two or three letters or emails spread over several months – will have an impact.
1. Gather initial shareholding figures
Either look at the CAAT website or ring/email us for the shareholdings of your local authority and for their contact details.
2. Confirm the shareholdings
Ask the finance director of the local authority if this is still the situation in terms of shareholdings. As the finance director does not decide policy on investments, the emphasis should be on information gathering rather than investment policy. Also ask for a list of the members of the pension fund investment committee and for their contact details.
3. Write to the policy makers
In a local authority, policy should be
decided by the pension fund
investment committee, so the best
place to start would be to write to the
chair of that committee.
Include:
- your understanding of the
investments they hold
- a statement of your concern about
these investments
- a request that the committee
consider whether these
investments are appropriate
- a question that requires an answer; for example, ‘What action do they intend to take?’
4. Follow up your letter
What you do next very much depends upon the response. It may well take a few letters to establish the local authority’s investment policy and practice.
If the response is dismissive:
You could write to the other members
of the pension committee to see if
there is any wider support for your
arguments.
If the response doesn’t address your points:
You could write again, if necessary
narrowing your letter down to a
single question so that it is hard to
avoid.
If the response focuses on ‘engagement’:
‘Engagement’ is concerned with
negotiating better company practice.
While this may have benefits in some
sectors, we do not think it is relevant
to arms companies as the product
and its sale and use are the
fundamental problems. If the
response focuses on engagement,
ask how this approach might address
the obvious problems associated with
the arms industry.
If the response is everything you asked for:
Send it to us!
5. Don’t worry if you feel there’s little progress
Presently no local authority excludes arms from all its investments, but several have considered it and the political will appears to be moving in the right direction. What the local authorities need is a push. Those responsible for local authority investment talk to each other so it needs to be on the agenda of them all. Contacting your local authority will help achieve this and add to the debate within your local authority even if you don’t feel your arguments are making headway.
6. Make use of the office and experienced supporters
Please do ask us at any point if you would like our thoughts on how to proceed.
7. Let us know how you get on
Even if you don’t need any assistance, please let us know how you get on with your local authority. We would like to build a picture of which local authorities have yet to be approached and how much progress is being made.
There are, of course, many other things you can do to promote clean investment with your local authority. These include contacting your local UNISON branch (UNISON has been very supportive of ethical investment at both national and branch level); writing a letter to your local paper; drawing up a petition to hand in; and going along to a pension committee meeting - even if you can’t speak you will get a sense of the discussion and they will know you are there!
Give us feedback on this page