Hackney Greens asked to name firms dropped from £2.4bn pension fund

Hackney’s Green-run council has been asked to name the companies, if any, it has already pulled pension money out of. The Greens had campaigned on a promise to divest from firms they linked to human rights abuses in Gaza.

The party took control of Hackney Council for the first time in May and has begun changing how the pension pot is invested, having pledged “full ethical divestment”. Before the election, Mayor Zoë Garbett singled out Elbit and Palantir as firms people did not want their money in, and suggested pension funds could be put into local housing instead. Amnesty International alleges that both companies share responsibility for Israeli war crimes in Gaza, which it says include genocide.

Hackney pension fund questions at the committee

Former Labour councillor Vincent Stops put the question to the pensions committee on 22 September. Holding up a Green campaign leaflet, he said it had called for £30m to be divested, and asked members to list every company the council had sold out of or planned to, with the amounts.

The chair, Green councillor Izzy Castello-Cortes, said the holdings would be set out in writing at a later date. Asked whether that meant nothing had been divested so far, she said: “As of today, we have taken some big steps in terms of looking into this.” She said she could not pre-empt what the council’s Responsible Investment Working Group would find.

Committee papers suggest the information was already in hand. A log of actions, put online on 21 September, records that members had asked officers back in July to get a list of the securities held for Hackney by the London Collective Investment Vehicle, the pool that looks after London boroughs’ pension pots. An update on the log said this had been supplied and would go to the chair. Separately, council officers have flagged a risk that the committee could put Green campaign pledges ahead of what the law requires of it.

Speaking once the meeting had ended, Mr Stops accused the Greens of “backtracking” on their call for immediate divestment.

How much of the £2.4bn fund is exposed

The figures are disputed. In 2024 the council put the fund’s value at £1.994bn; it is now about £2.4bn. It said then that around 0.2 per cent had indirect exposure, mainly through equity portfolios, to firms named on a UN human rights office list of companies operating in the occupied Palestinian territories. Over time the council has quoted amounts between £1.9m and £3.5m. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign says the true total is about £106m.