Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea Pension Fund (RBKC)

Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea Pension Fund (RBKC)

The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea Pension Fund operates as part of the £300bn-plus Local Government Pension Scheme, serving current and former employees of the council. It participates in the Tri-Borough Pension Service alongside Westminster City Council and the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, an administrative collaboration that shares back-office functions across three central London boroughs. The fund is a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment through its appointed managers. RBKC runs a diversified portfolio spanning multiple asset classes including quoted equities, index-linked gilts, infrastructure, private equity, venture capital, and direct real estate. The in-house Direct Property Portfolio holds mixed-use assets across the borough, while the Homeless Housing Investment Scheme targets residential property specifically within Kensington and Chelsea. The fund accesses alternatives primarily through the London Collective Investment Vehicle, an FCA-authorised asset pool established in 2015 to consolidate LGPS allocations across London boroughs. Venture capital commitments flow through London CIV-managed mandates. The fund maintains collaborative governance arrangements, with the Tri-Borough Pension Service providing shared pensions administration across three London authorities. RBKC is a member of the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, a shareholder engagement group that coordinates stewardship activity on behalf of LGPS funds. The investment committee, chaired by Quentin Marshall, oversees strategic asset allocation and manager selection, with day-to-day management handled by Pension Fund Manager Julia Stevens. RBKC's most distinctive structural feature is the tension between its hyper-local direct real estate strategy and its pooled passive alternative investment approach — the fund invests directly in bricks-and-mortar across one of London's most expensive boroughs while outsourcing venture capital, infrastructure, and private equity selection to the London CIV. This creates a bifurcated governance model where internally managed residential and commercial property sits alongside externally selected, pooled fund commitments.