Institutional investors are powerful economic actors on whom millions of savers depend. With the advent of automatic enrolment, up to eight million more UK workers will become directly dependent on the capital markets for their wellbeing in retirement.

Meanwhile, pension funds’ role as owners of UK plc is coming under increasing scrutiny, following criticism that investors acted as ‘absentee landlords’ in the run-up to the financial crisis and have failed to control spiralling executive pay.

They are also increasingly being turned to as providers of the productive investment needed to get the UK economy moving, whether in green infrastructure or SMEs.

It is therefore vital that the law supports rather than impedes long-term, responsible investment of pension savings.

There is therefore an urgent need to reclaim fiduciary duty from the prevailing fixation on maximising short-term returns and to refocus it on sustainable wealth creation.