Transparency may cut pension deficit

Britain's strongest businesses could cut millions of pounds from their pension requirements simply by giving trustees a clearer picture of their financial strength, research published today claims.

Where a business is considered "strong" by the trustees of its pension, they are willing to agree to much lower financing requirements, says the study by PricewaterhouseCoopers covering 93 recent pension scheme valuations.

The impact is "far greater" than previous studies suggested, possibly even enough "to enable trustees of some schemes to conclude there is no longer a deficit" in their pensions funding, the report concludes.