Annual Review 2025: Our Year Campaigning for Change

Darren Hughes, Chief Executive

This has been a seismic year for British politics. We have witnessed a huge change election, but also one that was the most disproportional in the history of the UK. That has thrown a spotlight onto our failing First Past the Post electoral system like never before – a system that is clearly creaking under the weight of shifting voter behaviour.

A year on from the most disproportional general election in British history, we are clearly seeing political instability and volatility continue to be amplified by our outdated electoral system. First Past the Post buckling under the new multi-party environment has become a dominant theme in our political discourse, something the ERS has been central in bolstering through its research, comms and digital work.

A key moment for this narrative was the 2025 local elections where our work highlighted that a party outside of Labour or the Conservatives, in Reform, secured the FPTP ‘winner’s bonus’ for the first time in a century. This has intensified the debate around the electoral system for Westminster, which was kicked off by our work highlighting the distorting impact FPTP had on the general election.

Meanwhile, at Westminster the work to repair the damage done to our democracy in recent years is underway as long-standing ERS priorities have begun to take shape in legislation. The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill is scrapping FPTP and restoring the Supplementary Vote for mayoral and PCC elections, ensuring outcomes better reflect voters’ preferences.

The government’s forthcoming Elections Bill looks to include Votes at 16, automated voter registration, fairer rules on political finance, and reforms to voter ID – all policies we have championed for years. And after decades of campaigning, the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill is finally set to end the principle of birth-right law-making in Parliament.

Across the UK, we have continued to advance the cause of fair representation and citizen participation. In Wales, ERS Cymru is leading efforts to promote awareness of major Senedd electoral reforms and the impact they could have at next year’s elections, as well as pressing for STV for future elections. In Scotland, our pioneering citizens’ assembly in Dunfermline is showing how local democracy can be deepened through genuine public participation.

The progress made on all these fronts is a testament to the hard work, passion and professionalism of the ERS staff, and I would like to put on record my thanks for their dedication and enthusiasm. Likewise, I would like to pay tribute to our board who support our work by volunteering their time, wisdom and expertise.

Our membership and supporter base have never been stronger, and the momentum for change has never been clearer. The foundation of our work is the support of the thousands of people who deeply believe in democracy and that ours can be made better. We would not be able to do what we do without their support.

Together we are demonstrating that a more equal, accountable, and participatory democracy is not just possible – it is already being built.

Lynn Henderson, Chair

As Chair, I am proud to reflect on a year when the momentum for proportional representation as well as for strengthening and renewing our democracy has gathered pace on several fronts. We are seeing the government strip back FPTP from mayoral and PCC elections, which is a deeply encouraging sign. And the work of the ERS has helped shaped the political discourse around how dysfunctional and distorting FPTP is becoming for Westminster.

The culmination of this work can be seen in the latest British Social Attitudes survey, which recorded a record 60% support for electoral reform from the public, the highest number since it started polling the question in the 1980s.

We have seen the government respond to public pressure for a fairer, more accessible democracy by pledging measures the ERS has long championed – Votes at 16, automatic voter registration, stronger rules on political finance, and an end to hereditary law-making in the Lords. These reforms show that persistent, evidence-based campaigning works.

The ERS has been deeply involved in bolstering democracy in all four corners of our nation. In Wales, our team has led the debate around Senedd reform and pushed for a move to STV. In Scotland, our work to embed citizens’ assemblies has helped demonstrate how communities can play a direct role in shaping decisions.

These achievements reflect the dedication and hard work of the ERS staff. I want to thank them – and our thousands of members and supporters – for their commitment to building a fairer politics for everyone.

Our drive for electoral reform is gathering pace and shows that together we are proving that when people demand better democracy, change follows.

Looking ahead to the next four years

Following the General Election in 2024, we reached the end of our last strategic period – giving us a new government and a fresh perspective on how we could best campaign in our new environment. Our task is to build power and influence so that we can help shape that change towards our goals and values, and away from the tendencies we have observed of democratic backsliding and the erosion of hard won democratic norms.

We launched our new strategy at the beginning of 2025, following a period of strategic review, analysis and outreach. We sought to ground our strategic review process and decision-making in a broad understanding of the environment we operate in, and with an honest view of our role and place within that environment.

To reach that understanding we conducted a range of stakeholder interviews with politicians, academics, journalists, fellow campaigners and think tanks, asking for their views on the challenges and opportunities ahead and what role we might play. We asked the same questions of our membership in a survey and in an online facilitated member workshop. Some of the members who came to the session were kind enough to share their thoughts on how they found it.

The results were analysed by our team and fed into our in-person staff sessions. Our new strategy covers the period up until the next General Election, and a summary can be viewed here: Certain Change: ERS Strategic Plan Summary 2025 to 2029.

2024 General Election – Our in-depth analysis and what’s happening a year later

Our General Election 2024 report, A System Out of Step: The 2024 General Election, launched in December last year, highlighted the way our political landscape is rapidly changing, creating increasingly distorted and disproportional electoral results. This year we have continued to analyse and draw attention to the way multi-party politics are straining against FPTP in the UK. The English local elections this year were yet another example of increasing volatility and fragmentation making the case for fair votes ever stronger.

Government Confirms Historic Democratic Reforms

The government published their strategy for modernising elections in summer featuring many of the policy changes that ERS has long campaigned for. The changes, expected to come forward in an Elections Bill soon, include Votes at 16, changes to voter ID, improvements to voter registration and political finance reforms.

We have long been campaigning for these changes – by expanding participation, improving transparency, and strengthening oversight, the government can help ensure that our elections are fair, inclusive, and fit for the 21st century.

These changes have been a long time coming but we are thrilled to finally see this work being taken forward, which will go a long way to improving access and engagement.

Voters are Getting their Second Choice back in Mayoral and PCC elections

In July, the government announced that the English Devolution & Community Empowerment Bill will legislate for a return to using the Supplementary Vote for Mayoral and PCC elections. Now, voters will once again be able to express a second choice. That means more meaningful choice at the ballot box – and mayors who are elected with broad support from the community they govern.

This is an important change that we had been pressing the government on and another important win for the Society.

Quarter of a Million Voices Calling for a Democratic Second Chamber

This year we hit a major campaigning milestone – over 250,000 people have added their name to our call to reform the House of Lords!

This is a clear message that the public is fed up with an unelected, unaccountable second chamber making decisions about their lives. In a 21st-century democracy, power should never be handed down or given away. It should be earned, through the ballot box.

If you haven’t signed yet, now is your chance to be part of a growing movement. With every new signature we strengthen our case for change.

Add your name →

Building Relationships with Important People

Willie Sullivan, Senior Director, Campaigns and Scotland:

“Building connections with politicians is incredibly important in mobilising change.

Our work behind the scenes consists of meeting with MPs and their staff to better understand their democratic concerns, gathering information and identifying politicians who share our goals. We are building our reputation as a trusted source of information by providing evidence-based research on a variety of democratic issues.

We work closely with other organisations in the democracy sector to support MPs in raising democratic issues with the government and organising events to facilitate conversations amongst politicians around our policy issues.”

Legislation on the Removal of Hereditary Peers

The House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill, has made it to its final stage in parliament in which the House of Lords reviews the changes made in the Commons. This bill will end the right of hereditary peers to hold a seat in the second chamber simply because of the family they were born into. The 92 seats for hereditary peers were retained as part of a deal during the 1999 Lords reforms but this was only ever intended to be a temporary measure.

After 26 years, and despite the passage of the bill being delayed with peers tabling a huge number of amendments for this two-page bill, it now looks likely to make it into law. We will continue to press the government on their work towards the promised second stage of Lords reform in which voters get a say in who makes laws on their behalf.

Upcoming Bill on Improving Elections

In July the government released a strategy statement outlining proposals for the forthcoming Elections Bill. The statement committed to lowering the franchise to 16 as expected but also included many other measures that we have been campaigning for, such as automatic registration (AVR) which will be piloted before introduction, and changes to the voter ID scheme. The government’s strategy also looks to tighten rules around political donations and increase the Electoral Commission’s powers with an increase in the maximum fine it can impose.

We expect the bill to be introduced to parliament soon and we will continue to work with government and with MPs to ensure that the bill is the best it can be for voters.

English Devolution & Community Empowerment Bill

The English Devolution & Community Empowerment Bill has also been making its way through parliament this autumn. Prior to publication we argued for returning to a preferential system for Mayoral elections (which were changed to FPTP elections in the Elections Act 2022).

We were delighted that the government listened and the bill will change these elections back to the Supplementary Vote, meaning the preferences of voters will be better reflected in the outcome of these elections. This bill has also given us the opportunity to raise the issue of PR for English local government elections with the government and with MPs.

Proportional Representation Debated in Parliament

In January, MPs met in Parliament to debate proportional representation, which was a welcome and vital opportunity to discuss a fairer and more representative democracy for all. In preparation for this debate, we actively encouraged MPs to attend and speak out in support of fair votes. To support this, we provided them with our key research – emphasising how the voting system is truly letting voters down.

This debate built on the success of a Ten-Minute Rule Bill raised by Sarah Olney at the end of last year, in which she made the case for a voting system that treats everyone fairly. Over 100 MPs have joined a parliamentary group on electoral reform – upping the pressure on the government to take action on our failing voting system.

This Year at the Party Conferences

Having a presence at the major party conferences is a key activity in our campaigning work. Party conferences provide us with opportunities to get our issues in front of people who can make a difference. Across a typical conference we host fringe events to generate high-level discussions on our issues, meet with MPs and key stakeholders in the party, and come together with our allies from across the movement to make the case for fair votes.

This year our staff team attended the autumn Conferences for Labour, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Reform and Greens. We also attended the Liberal Democrat spring conference at the start of the year.

Hitting the headlines

Mike Wright, Head of Communications

“It has been busy year for the ERS, as we’ve won a lot of media attention on our issues across 2025. Our team have worked with journalists across national and local media to provide in-depth analysis, opinion pieces and interviews, to make the case for electoral reform and push vital democratic issues higher up the news agenda to increase public support.”

The end of last year saw a sharp focus on electoral reform with coverage of our report on the 2024 general election, quickly followed by the Lib Dems’ Private Member’s Bill passing its first parliamentary vote, both of which saw the ERS quoted in the national press. Jess Garland later appeared on the Politics Home podcast to discuss whether PR can fix our broken politics. There was growing interest in the bill to remove the hereditary peers as well as political finance, with ERS being quoted in a Guardian investigation into dark money flowing into our politics. The ERS was also prominent in the debate over yet more peers being added to the House of Lords in the New Year’s list, with Darren highlighting its already ‘ludicrous size’ in the Mirror.

We garnered national press attention with our analysis of the local elections showing that Reform had received the ‘winner’s bonus’ under FPTP for the first time, which the Mirror and Guardian covered. Politico also wrote a long-read on how the electoral system was struggling to cope with multiparty politics, quoting Jess Garland on how FPTP is now ‘failing on its own terms’. Jess was quoted again in Politico on how the hereditary peers were ‘abusing their position’ to delay the bill to remove them. In Scotland, we laid the ground for the Dunfermline citizens’ assembly, with Willie writing an oped in the Herald on the lack of democracy in the new school fiasco on the Isle of Mull and in a front page piece in the Herald on how Scots trust political institutions that are closer to home. In Wales, Jess Blair led the charge on warnings that the next Senedd could the least representative of women ever, with coverage in Nation Cymru and the Pembrokeshire Herald. There was also growing interest over this period in votes at 16, with Darren going on LBC with Iain Dale and then Nick Ferrari to debate its merits.

The ERS was prominent in the coverage on the government’s announcement in the summer that it would be expanding the franchise to 16- and 17-year-olds in the Elections Bill, with Darren quote in the BBC, FT and Mirror, among other outlets. Jess Blair and Jess Garland also did a host of broadcast outlets on the day, including BBC News, Nicky Campbell and LBC. In this period Darren was also profiled in the New Statesman as the ‘Kiwi who wants to fix Britain’s electoral system’. In Scotland, the successful government grant to lunch the Dunfermline citizens’ assembly was covered nationally and locally.

Making the Case for Electoral Reform with Our Research

Ian Simpson, Senior Research Officer

“Across this year, our research team has continued to conduct independent, in-depth and timely research into the state of our political system. Conducting high-quality research is key to achieving our strategic goals as it provides the evidence base for our policy and campaigns. Findings are fed into government consultations, presented to select committees and quoted in parliament as well as shaping and driving our commentary in the media.”

2025 Local Elections Analysis

We closely monitored and analysed the outcomes of the English local and mayoral elections in May this year. Having collected data on the results of equivalent elections held in previous years, we were able to quickly compare the May 2025 results with previous ones highlighting how the electoral environment had changed.

We also highlighted how Strategic Authority mayors were elected with low vote shares under First Past the Post, with two coming to office with fewer than 30% of votes. We followed up our public statements and blogs on this with a letter to relevant government ministers calling for First Past the Post for Mayors and Police & Crime Commissioner elections to be scrapped. We are delighted that the government has acted on our call, going back to a preferential voting system in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill.

In relation to the English local authority elections, we highlighted a number of councils where one party, often Reform UK, won an outright majority of councillors having received the support of only around one-third of voters, under First Past The Post. Our analysis contributed to the ongoing focus on the fragmentation of party support in the UK, with voters supporting an ever-increasing number of parties, making First Past The Post increasingly unfit for purpose. We were able to show how for the first time in a set of English local elections, the unearned FPTP ‘winner’s bonus’ went to a party other than the Conservatives or Labour: across England, Reform UK won 41% of council seats from 31% of votes.

Electoral landscape analysis

Increased party fragmentation and volatility, the key themes of our GE report, continue to be dominant discussion points with the polls showing voters continuing to move away from the two largest parties. These changes are crucial to winning the argument for PR and are now being more widely recognised. We have continued to analyse the electoral landscape post-General Election and share our findings with a range of audiences, including political parties, trade unions and public discussion groups.

Expert Forum on Political Finance

Prior to the government releasing the election strategy statement, we initiated and convened an Expert Forum to develop policy and feed into the Elections Bill political finance measures. The expert forum brought together international elections experts, UK academics with specialisms in electoral finance and policy experts to discuss where the gaps are in the UK political finance regime and what needs to change. The findings of the forum have been used to influence the forthcoming legislation.

Diversity in Politics

Since 2018 we have been working with Centenary Action to call for Section 106 of the Equality Act 2010 to be commenced. S106 would compel political parties to publish the diversity data of candidates for election to the UK Parliament, the Senedd and the Scottish Parliament. At the start of 2025 we secured Ministerial commitment to commence S106. Since then, we have consulted civil servants, academics, political parties and the third sector to create a detailed briefing on the implementation of S106 for the Office for Equality and Opportunity (OEO). We have also convened a roundtable with the OEO, Centenary Action and the wider women’s sector to discuss and advocate for reforms to increase women’s representation in political office.

Senedd Elections 2026

With the next Senedd elections due to be held on 7^th May 2026, our year in Wales has been spent gearing up for election day.

The election will be very different from those held before, with the Senedd increasing in size to 96 Members from the current 60, moving from the current Additional Member System to the Closed List electoral system, and establishing 16 new constituencies. These changes have come about following the passing of the Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Act 2024.

While we campaigned for a larger Senedd, we raised significant concerns about the Closed List system and advocated for the Single Transferable Vote (STV) to be used instead. In 2025 we have continued to campaign around this, meeting with parties about their manifestos where we have called for STV for both the Senedd and Welsh local government.

Earlier this year, we developed our own STV Bill for the Senedd, which set out to show decision makers how simple the change would be. We met with parties across the political spectrum to discuss this. We have also been meeting candidates as they are announced, building relationships and support for changing the electoral system after the next election.

Throughout the year we have attended the Welsh party conferences, meeting MSs, MPs and candidates for the election next year. In March, we hosted a main stage interview with Rhun ap Iorwerth MS, the Leader of Plaid Cymru, on the state of Welsh and global democracy.

Improving Awareness of the Changes to Upcoming Senedd Elections

With so many changes coming down the line for the Senedd elections, we have also been playing our part in communicating the changes. We have convened the Democracy Group Cymru since 2020, which brings together organisations representing either newly enfranchised voters or working with those less likely to be registered. We now have around 90 organisations as members and in October we held a briefing for civil society on the changes, featuring speakers from the Senedd’s Research Service, the Electoral Commission and the Democracy and Boundary Commission Cymru.

In October we also held a briefing for journalists on the Senedd changes, which was attended by journalists from across the UK. Our aim with this is to ensure media coverage around the election next year is well informed, given it is likely that more attention will be paid to the Senedd elections than in previous years due to the political changes taking place.

Towards the end of the year, we planned an event in conjunction with the Institute of Welsh Affairs (IWA), looking at how to make the most of the additional capacity more Members of the Senedd will bring. This featured speakers including former First Minister, Mark Drakeford MS, and Elin Jones MS, the Presiding Officer of the Senedd.

Institutionalising Citizens’ Assemblies

Our project of a citizens’ assembly for Dunfermline was included in the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2025 and received the funding it needed to go ahead. This initiative – jointly run with Fife Council & the Scottish Government and working in partnership with local people, community groups and institutions – gives a new way for the people of Dunfermline to influence the future of their city. Our hope is that due to the selection of the assembly by sortition, it will be those whose voices are usually unheard who get to be the loudest. It will meet across three weekends in early 2026 – once in January, twice in February – to explore the question: “We all want Dunfermline to be a great place to call home. As our city grows and develops, how do we continue to improve our community for today and tomorrow?” You can read more about the assembly and sign up for updates here – dunfermlineassembly.org

This will be Scotland’s first city-level citizens’ assembly, but our intention is to show that these processes can be embedded into local authority decision making in affordable and constructive ways. So, while we get on with setting up and running the assembly, we are having it independently evaluated by LSE, the report of which we will disseminate to further show how these citizen-led decision making processes can be implemented sustainably across the country.

Beyond the Constitutional Binary

Over the last few years, ERS Scotland has been working on a project that is exploring ways that the debate about Scotland’s constitutional future can be taken forward in inclusive and constructive ways. This work culminated in April with a conference titled: A Scottish Spring – Building a democracy fit for the 21st Century. We brought together a range of civic organisations, democracy campaigners and academics for a public discussion on polarisation, populism and the future of the Scottish Parliament after 25 years of devolution. Here you can read more about it, including a film of the day, plus our exclusive polling and Herald front page story.

The event was the first public outing after a period of roundtable discussions with the speakers and organisations involved. In the coming months there will be further opportunities for such an approach, as Scotland enters into key set of Holyrood elections, which will see the entry of new parties, new challenges and new opportunities in democratic space.

Building a Local Scotland

In September of 2024 a group of academics, trade unionists, former council leaders and journalists launched Building A Local Scotland to tackle the creeping centralisation that has left Scotland as one of the least locally governed countries in the world. ERS Scotland has been a key partner in this campaign for a revamped local democracy that puts power in the hands of communities.

This year the group has been focussed on developing plans and strategies to take the conversation forward. As part of this, Building A Local Scotland engaged with MSPs through a briefing in the Scottish Parliament, addressed by veteran local democracy campaigners. The campaign also had speakers at our ERS Scotland hosted fringe meeting at Scottish Labour conference. In addition, we conducted meetings with key academics and organisations in the field and engaged with COSLA. A consistent feature of the discussions included the need for a set of principles and a more detailed vision for a transformative approach to the function on local democracy in Scotland.

To this end, Building A Local Scotland convened relevant think-tanks and thought leaders on the topic for a day of planning and reflection on the major themes needing addressed. The outputs will help to form the platform for a package of materials aimed at policy makers, the media and the general public. In addition, it will form the basis for influencing manifestos and Intervening in the May 2026 election.

Our Members and Supporters

Lizzie Lawless, Membership and Digital Officer:

“We are incredibly thankful to the almost 7,000 members of the Society that support our work. With each year, we welcome many new members who align their support to our campaign. Being an ERS member means that you’re joining our campaign at its heart. Members’ contributions support our work in parliament, in the press and online – making the case, and backing it up – for how we can fix Westminster’s broken system. In short, our members are helping us win the fight for electoral reform”

Thank you to our members

Being an ERS member means that you’re joining our campaign at its heart. Members’ contributions support our work in parliament, in the press and online – making the case, and backing it up – for how we can fix Westminster’s broken system. In short, our members are helping us win the fight for electoral reform.

Support our work, become a member →

Thank you to our wider supporter network

Our supporters play a vital role in amplifying the mission of the Electoral Reform Society. By reading our weekly news round-up, sharing our articles, and engaging in conversations online, they help ensure that the call for a fairer, more representative democracy reaches far beyond our immediate network. Every click, share, and comment helps bring vital issues of political reform into the public eye and keeps pressure on decision-makers to deliver real change.

With hundreds of supporters in every constituency, we have the people on the ground when they are needed – whether that is contacting their MP, writing to their local newspaper or spreading the word. It means that when we start a project, like this year’s Dunfermline New City Assembly, we are not starting from scratch.

Keeping members of the Society informed

It’s very important to us that we keep our members and supporters informed on how we are campaigning for change. Over the last 12 months, our membership team has continued to work on our communication with our members – giving our members the best opportunity to keep themselves informed on the work they are supporting.

Each quarter we send out a ‘Members’ Quarterly’ email – an exclusive members-only newsletter which gives an update on our behind the scenes campaigning work across all three ERS offices in London, Wales and Scotland.

We also send ‘Members’ Insights’ emails, in which various members of the ERS staff team explain how their work within the organisation fits into our wider campaign goals.

Here are some of the insights that we send out to members, given by the team:

“Online campaigning means we can tailor the level of detail to the audience, but give them the tools to find out more, if they want.

For many people, highlighting the failures of first past the post is enough, for a sub group we need to explain proportional representation, for some of them we need to promote STV as the best system and for the really engaged we need to talk about the difference between the Hare and Droop quotas.

Rather than trying to answer everything in one pamphlet and end up alienating half the audience and patronise the other half, we can get the right info to the right people when they want it, and hopefully take them on a journey with us.”

Doug Cowan, Head of Digital, on why our online presence is so important in supporting our campaign for a better democracy

“Everything we campaign for at ERS is backed by solid research – so we can be confident that the reforms we propose will genuinely strengthen the UK’s democratic health.

 We want to be a trusted, non-partisan and non-bias voice that people across the political spectrum can rely on. We don’t campaign with an ulterior motive – we are only focused on improving democracy across the UK. Basing our work on evidence not only makes our case more persuasive but also brings credibility to us and to the campaigns we run.”

Thea Ridley-Castle, Research and Policy Officer, on the importance of a strong evidence base in our research

Our Team

The Society’s staff are based in our offices in London, Edinburgh and Cardiff.

This year we said farewell to several valued colleagues who have contributed a huge amount to our work during their time with us. Thanks to Tom Abraham, Communications and Research Assistant in Wales, Nia Thomas, Research Officer in Wales, Gen Sandle, Digital Associate in London and Thea Ridley-Castle, Research and Policy Officer in London.

Thank you to all our staff for their hard work and dedication.

See the current team.

Our Board

The Board is the Electoral Reform Society’s governing body. It consists of up to 15 members, of which 12 are elected by our membership, with up to 3 additional co-opted Board members. Elections took place recently over the summer of 2025, and newly elected Board members will take office after the AGM on the 13^th of December.

Current elected Board members who have served since 2nd of December 2023 are:

• Lynn Henderson, Chair
• Amy Dodd, Vice Chair (Management)
• Caroline Osborne, Deputy Chair (Campaigns & Research)
• Victor Chamberlain, Honorary Treasurer
• Chris Finlayson
• Frances Foley
• David Green
• Pablo John
• Kirsten de Keyser
• Sandy Martin
• Shaun Roberts

Thank you to previous Board members Kezia Dugdale, Stephen Sadler, Shavanah Taj and Christopher Graham who stood down in 2024-25.

Thank you to all our Board members for their invaluable contribution and commitment to ERS.

See the current ERS Board

Finance

2024-25 was a difficult year for the ERS financially, reflective of the global economic downturn, and like many other charities and non-profit organisations. However, our income from members and supporters was up more than 15% compared to the previous year and our property income has remained stable. Our expenditure was under budget, and we were able to make significant savings. The majority of our spend is on our staff, with most of our campaigning, research and policy work being carried out in-house. The difference between income and expenditure was met by the carry-over of the previous year’s surplus and a drawdown from the ERS Fund under our “Total Return” investment policy model.

Income (2024-25)

£1,274,795

(Hover over to see breakdown)

Expenditure (2024-25)

£ 2,370,778

(Hover over to see breakdown)

ERS Investment Fund

The ERS Fund provides the main source of funding for the Society to operate. In 2024-25 we received just under £1.7million from the Fund, £850k of which was generated in income. Our investment manager is Rathbone Brothers plc and we operate a medium risk strategy for the fund, enabling us to use a ‘total return’ model that supports the Society’s operating needs and seeks to protect the value of the remaining capital over time.

The Finance, Audit, Investments and Risk (FAIR) committee and ERS management meet with our investment managers throughout the year to maintain oversight of the fund. We have talked to Rathbones about the Society’s values, particularly around democracy issues, so that investments made for us reflect these. Rathbones has a well-established focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues as part of its strategy to lead the field in responsible investing.