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How your contributions support the UK economy

Our key UK Private Market investments and where they’re located

Do you know where your contributions go?

Although we make investments all over the world, a lot of them are located much closer to home. Around 46%* of our investments are here in the UK, meaning a lot of your contributions are pumped right back into the UK economy.

We invest your contributions with long-terms goals in mind, so we can pay you the pension you’ve earned long into the future. We invest in sectors that are resilient to things like recessions, that provide an essential service, and have potential for growth – luckily many of these are right here in the UK.

Not only do these investments work hard for you they also have a positive impact on the economy and many play a vital role in our society, such as crematoriums and Thames Water. And whether we own a majority stake in the company or not, we still have influence. Typically, with our Private Market investments, we’ll get a seat on the board giving us a key role in decision-making – this means we can use our expert knowledge to support these companies in making the right decisions for both our members, society and the economy.

Here, we’ll take a look at our key UK Private Market investments.

Illustration of a plant with leaves that represent our key UK Private Market investments which are detailed below.

Where they’re located

We’ve highlighted a few examples of where we invest your contributions into the UK economy, but there are plenty of others across the UK - from service stations down South, to windfarms in Scotland.

Discover more about these investments

These are just a selection of our UK investments, but there are plenty of other companies that we work with across the UK.

There’s also our Public Market investments - these are investments that are traded publicly on exchanges. We invest in some of the UK’s biggest companies that are traded publicly, and they also have a key role in both ensuring we can pay members pensions long into the future and supporting the UK economy. We'll vote at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of many of the companies that we own shares in. Having the right to vote on decisions is one of the most effective tools we have for holding companies we invest in accountable and encouraging positive change.

To find out more about where your contributions are invested, check out our articles and case studies.

*Source: USS, March 2021


Published: 28 June 2022

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