Hucknall councillor welcomes Nottinghamshire County Council pension fund committee decision to review investments in tobacco

This was after Coun Lee Waters (Ash Ind), who represents Hucknall South, raised the controversial investment at a meeting of the committee.

Coun Waters has been an outspoken critic of the pension fund’s ‘unethical and immoral investments’.

He is campaigning for divestment from companies involved in the extraction of fossil fuels, companies involved in child slavery, animal testing, the production of recreational drugs and others who produce weapons.

He said, “I am pleased that the pension’s committee are now going to review their investments in tobacco companies.

"British American Tobacco own a 20 per cent stake in a Canada-based cannabis producer and have been criticised for producing vaping products that target young people.

"It’s high time we stopped investing in companies like this.”

As at March 31, 2020 the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire pension fund was valued at approximately £5 billion, with more than 300 contributing employers and more than 48,000 contributing members.

Companies it invests in include BP, Shell, Neste OYJ, BHP Group, Rio Tinto, Glaxosmithkline, British American Tobacco, BAE, Nestle SA

Coun Waters continued: "We have a responsibility to members to invest appropriately and at the moment we certainly are not.

"I am sure a significant amount of members of this fund will sit uncomfortably knowing that their money is being invested in environmentally unfriendly companies or others that are being investigated for child slavery, tobacco, animal testing and weapons.”