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Legal & General eyes NatWest pensions arm Cushon acquisition

PorStaff

Oct 11, 2025

Pic: Reuters

Legal & General (L&G) is planning to make a move on the workplace pensions provider owned by NatWest Group, the FTSE-100 lender, as its chief executive aims to expand its share of the UK retirement market. Sky News has learned that L&G is one of several potential buyers interested in acquiring Cushon from NatWest.

According to City sources, there is significant competition for the business, and L&G is not guaranteed to be the final buyer. If a deal with L&G does go through, Cushon would enhance a master trust business that oversees over £36.5bn in assets, making it the largest commercial entity of its kind in the UK. The L&G master trust unit caters to 349 employers and 1.9 million members.

Cushon currently manages assets valued at £3.7bn, as per the latest figures from NatWest, which acquired a controlling stake in the business for £144m two years ago. The pensions business serves approximately 650,000 members across 21,000 employers. NatWest holds an 85% stake in Cushon, with the remaining portion owned by the subsidiary’s management.

For NatWest, selling Cushon would demonstrate Chief Paul Thwaite’s commitment to refocusing the bank on its core strategic priorities after shedding the last remnants of taxpayer ownership earlier this year. These priorities include a bank-wide simplification program and more active balance sheet and risk management. Under Mr. Thwaite, NatWest has explored a few larger-scale acquisitions, including a potential deal with Santander UK that did not materialize due to the bank’s desire to offer an attractive price to its shareholders.

Cushon provides workplace pension products along with a variety of workplace ISAs, such as Junior ISAs, Lifetime ISAs, and General Investment Accounts. NatWest acquired the business to diversify its non-interest income by offering Cushon’s products to its commercial and business banking clients. For Antonio Simoes, the former HSBC and Santander executive leading L&G, acquiring Cushon would strengthen its position in a crucial strategic area.

In a bid to drive greater scale and reduce unnecessary bureaucratic costs, the government announced significant pension reforms this year, with the goal of having defined contribution schemes manage at least £25 billion in assets by 2030. A spokesperson for NatWest Group declined to comment on the discussions with L&G but reiterated the bank’s focus on delivering for its customers. The identities of other bidders for Cushon remain undisclosed, and L&G has chosen not to comment on the matter.

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Blackstone nearing £1bn logistics deal with Tritax Big Box

Oct 12, 2025 Staff

Food delivery drones may soon become a reality in the UK as an Irish start-up, Manna Aero, aims to launch the first food drone delivery pilot scheme in 2026, pending regulatory approval. The company has already conducted over 200,000 food delivery flights in locations such as west Dublin, Espoo in Finland, and Texas using specially designed 23kg quadcopters. Manna Aero’s CEO, Bobby Healy, sees the UK as a crucial market for their expansion, citing its size and potential for their product to integrate well into the high street. The company is currently in discussions with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and NATS (National Air Traffic Services) to pave the way for their operations in the UK. Despite the company’s success in other locations, not everyone is excited about the prospect of food delivery drones buzzing overhead. Some residents in west Dublin have raised concerns about the noise generated by the drones, describing it as stressful and intrusive. Groups like Drone Action Dublin 15 have also voiced opposition to the drone flights, citing noise pollution as a major issue. However, Manna Aero remains confident in the benefits of their technology, emphasizing its quieter, safer, and more environmentally friendly nature compared to traditional road-based delivery methods. The company continues to invest in new technology to address concerns and improve their operations. Overall, opinions on food delivery drones in the UK remain divided, with some welcoming the innovation while others express reservations about its potential impact on their daily lives. Public opinion on potential UK food delivery drones

Oct 12, 2025 Staff

AI has taken £120,000 from Joe Turner. The 38-year-old writer lost 70% of his clients to chatbots in two years. His is one of 40 job roles that AI is rapidly replacing, according to discussions the Money team had with industry experts, researchers, and affected workers. Turner, who used to earn six figures as a freelancer, feels betrayed by the rise of generative AI. Around 85% of the tasks involved in Turner’s job could be done by AI, according to research published by Microsoft in July. The tech giant’s analysis of 200,000 conversations with its Co-Pilot chatbot revealed that it could complete at least 90% of the work carried out by historians and coders, 80% of salespeople and journalists, and 75% of DJs and data scientists. Jobs most at risk of being replaced by AI include customer service assistants (72%), financial advisers (69%), and product promoters (62%). On the other hand, there are 40 jobs that AI cannot touch. These jobs require a human touch or involve high levels of judgment. Experts are skeptical of Microsoft’s claim that AI chatbots are meant to enhance job categories rather than replace them entirely. An AI consultant with over a decade of experience in deploying AI in various companies believes that many jobs are likely to be replaced by AI in the next few years, except for those that are relationship-driven or require high levels of judgment. Major companies have already announced job cuts due to investments in AI. Klarna reduced its headcount by 40%, while Microsoft and Amazon have also made significant changes to their workforce due to AI implementations. While AI is expected to take over many jobs in the future, macroeconomic factors such as increases in employer national insurance and energy costs are also contributing to job cuts. However, the rise of AI spending and automation in businesses indicates that AI may play a significant role in reshaping the job market in the coming years. Freelancers like Turner may be the first to feel the impact of AI on the job market. Demand for writing and coding gigs has already decreased significantly since the release of AI tools like ChatGPT. Turner’s experience of losing clients to AI chatbots highlights the ongoing shift towards automation in various industries. The 40 jobs ‘most at risk of AI’ – and 40 it can’t touch Overnight, £30,000 was wiped from his annual income. «I went on their website and I realised they had started using AI instead of me,» he says. One by one, most of his other clients followed suit. «It was just a complete desert,» he says of the job landscape. If you listen to the heads of some leading AI companies, you’d be forgiven for thinking this desert is just one apocalyptic vista at the end of the working world as we know it. Dario Amodei, chief executive of Anthropic, has warned AI could «wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs», while OpenAI boss Sam Altman said entire job categories would be «totally, totally gone». «They want to glorify the models,» says Dr Fabian Stephany, a Labour economist at the University of Oxford and fellow at Microsoft’s independent AI Economy Institute. Impersonating a big tech boss, he continues: «‘Oh wow, look, if we can automate away 50,000 people, then that technology must be really tremendous – so you should be investing in our company!’ «I would advocate to have a bit of more of a cooled down, pragmatic approach. «Think about it as a technology and look at how technology has been interacting with the labour market in the past.» Inventions that revolutionised the workplace Take Richard Arkwright’s invention of the Spinning Jenny in 1769, which churned out huge quantities of yarn to make cloth in some of the first factories at the start of the industrial revolution. While putting home weavers out of a job, it increased the need for mill workers hundreds of times over, says Stephany. Henry Ford’s invention of the assembly line in 1913 had a similar impact when it reduced the time taken to make a car from 12.5 hours to 1.5 hours. Speed lowered production costs and forecourt prices, increasing demand, sales and the number of staff hired to fulfil them. For the same reason, the invention of the ATM in 1967 led to more bank teller jobs despite automating one of their key functions – something Microsoft was keen to point out. «Our research shows that AI supports many tasks, particularly those involving research, writing and communication, but does not indicate it can fully perform any single occupation,» Microsoft’s Tomlinson says. Indeed, the study shows 40 jobs where AI can perform just 10% or fewer tasks. Tradespeople feature heavily, like painter-decorators (4%), cleaners (3%) and roofers (2%). Surgical assistants (3%), ship engineers (5%) and nursing assistants (7%) also make the list. But history also includes a list of the losers of technological innovation. Replacing horses with tractors wiped 3.4 billion man hours from American farmwork annually by 1960, according to research by economic historian Professor Alan Olmstead. Spare a thought, too, for the pinsetters once responsible for stacking bowling alleys, who were more or less eliminated by the Automatic Pinspotter unveiled in 1946. Quantity does not mean quality, either: Arkwright’s millers faced exhausting and repetitive 13-hour shifts in extreme noise, heat and dust. How fulfilling would working with an AI be? «Sterile and just not interesting, uniform and bleak and surface-level and hollow» is how Turner described its work after trying AI at the request of a client. «Cars were a solution – a car was a horse that never got tired. The 40 jobs most vulnerable to AI – and 40 it can’t replace | Money News More human work, not less? That’s not the purpose of AI, according to the AI consultant. They believe that AI is not capable of coming up with original ideas for creative writing authors. However, AI is efficient at quickly generating a first draft based on an author’s idea. This can lead to more work opportunities rather than fewer, as seen in examples of companies using AI to enhance their services and save time and resources. The ‘losers of technological change’ Audio producer Christian Allen has seen AI take away opportunities from him, leading to lost gigs and potential clients. Despite the positive outlook on AI creating more work, Allen is concerned about the impact on his profession. He fears that AI could eventually replace human voice actors and production houses, making their skills redundant. The cost-effectiveness of AI solutions also poses a threat to traditional job roles in industries like audio production. Shifting sands forming another job desert? Oxford’s Labour economist Fabian Stephany challenges the idea of a bleak future where AI replaces entire professions. While some jobs may be at risk, Stephany believes that complex roles involving creativity and expertise are less likely to be fully automated by AI. However, professionals like Allen are still apprehensive about AI’s potential to disrupt their industry. AI tools that can assist with tasks like mixing audio could lead to a decrease in demand for human talent in certain fields. It is essential for the government to address the potential impact of AI on the workforce and provide support and guidance for both employers and employees. Training programs and initiatives to upskill workers in AI technologies can help mitigate job losses and create new opportunities in emerging sectors. Collaboration between the government and tech firms is crucial in preparing the workforce for the AI-driven economy of the future. The 40 jobs most at risk of AI and 40 it can’t touch – Money News

Oct 11, 2025 Staff

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