Monthly Newlsetter – June 2026

15 million people not saving enough for retirement, warns Pensions Commission

A landmark report from the Government-backed Pensions Commission has warned that millions of people across Britain are heading towards a retirement savings “cliff edge”, with around 15 million people currently not saving enough for later life. Without action, this figure could rise to 19 million.

The Commission, which was re-established in 2025, said low and middle earners, women and the self-employed are most at risk. An ageing population is adding further pressure, with the number of people over 65 expected to rise significantly over the coming decades.

Although automatic enrolment has increased pension participation, the report found many people are only saving the minimum contribution levels, which may not provide adequate retirement income. Around 45% of working-age adults are not paying into a pension at all, including millions who are employed but do not qualify for automatic enrolment because of age or earnings thresholds.

The Commission also raised concerns that minimum pension contribution rates are increasingly viewed as the “normal” level of saving rather than a starting point. Higher earners are generally benefiting more from additional employer contributions, while many lower earners have little else to fall back on.

The report highlighted a particularly concerning picture for the self-employed, with only around 4% regularly saving into pensions. Industry experts said more flexible savings solutions and systems similar to automatic enrolment may be needed to improve participation among self-employed workers.

There were also warnings around pension engagement more broadly. While automatic enrolment has helped bring people into pension saving, many remain disengaged and are not increasing contributions or reviewing whether they are on track for retirement.

The Commission also pointed to significant gender inequalities. Women continue to build up much lower pension wealth than men due to lower average earnings, part-time working, career breaks and caring responsibilities. The UK currently has one of the largest gender pension gaps in the OECD – The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Another area of concern was how people are accessing pensions following the introduction of Pension Freedoms. The report found many savers are withdrawing pension money too early or taking full cash withdrawals from smaller pension pots. Around half of all pension pots accessed are fully withdrawn, often to fund major purchases such as holidays, cars or home improvements, potentially increasing the risk of running out of money later in retirement.

Industry experts said there is a growing gap between perception and reality, with many people believing they are saving adequately simply because they are enrolled into a pension. However, minimum contribution levels alone may not deliver the retirement outcomes many expect.

The Commission will now spend the next year gathering views before publishing final recommendations in 2027, with possible reforms expected around automatic enrolment, contribution levels, self-employed saving and improving long-term pension engagement.

Anna Griffiths – Clear Technical Manager.

Remember this film?

At the same time as Notting Hill was released in cinemas, Amazon was launching in the UK. So, game over for independent bookshops and their handsome, charming but clumsy, oh-so-British owners?!  Some would say – “Big bad wolf comes to town = no more town”. Online arrived. Bookshops die. The end.
And initially that is what happened. Big brands like Borders died quickly, disappearing entirely less than a decade after Amazon arrived. Half of Notting Hill-style independent bookshops closed by 2016 – no more town.

Except.

Source: 7IM/ https://booksellers.org.uk/

The downward trend stopped in 2016.
In 2026, we’re back to well more than a thousand independent bookshops. Companies like Waterstones have been opening new shops too, with more to come in 2026. The same pattern happened in the US too.
This isn’t people rejecting Amazon – their latest results suggest they’re doing ok.

Bookshops are not outcompeting Amazon, but they worked out what their purpose is, and it’s not about book delivery or people getting the specific book they want as soon as possible – that’s the job of Amazon.
Bookshops are offering something a delivery service can’t – CONNECTION.

Browsing aimlessly. Coming out with a recommendation from someone you’ve never met. Finding an old favourite you weren’t looking for. Meeting a famous and beautiful American film star and falling in love … you know, connection.

Hiking instead of driving. Cooking instead of ordering. Calling instead of messaging. And so, gradually, bookshops are creeping back onto high streets – often supported by locals who want a bookshop. This analogy maps perfectly onto fears around AI and jobs. A job isn’t just a list of tasks.

If a bookshop’s sole job was to deliver books, we’d have none left. The economics don’t work vs. Amazon. But the social psychology of a bookshop? That’s worth something more than an anonymous package through your letterbox.

Source: 7IM

S&P Global UK Sentiment Index (CSI)

Household sentiment is at it’s lowest since July 2023 as savings have come under increasing
pressure.

This survey has been collected monthly since 2009 and is based on a panel of 1,500 UK households. It is a combination of tracking household financial wellbeing, labour market conditions, household spending, saving and debt. Sentiment was the most downbeat since July 2023 and has now fallen for a third consecutive month.

Have you been thinking about air conditioning this week?
Picture the scene in every single one of the 15% of UK households who have installed air-con in the last five years:

4 million UK homes are now with air-conditioning of some kind and based on conversations that is only going to go up. However, currently the UK grid isn’t built for it.
The UK demand for electricity usually does the opposite of the temperature – the further we are from Christmas, the less power we use. In July, a sunny and warm month, demand is a third less than cold, dark January. On average each person in the UK uses ~4,500 kWh electricity per year.

In Spain however, they have the same demand for power in the cold winter months, but then a spike during the summer months as the air-con use rises. 41% of Spanish households have air-conditioning, although this percentage rises in southern cities. The average Spaniard uses 10% more electricity per year, at ~5,100 kWh. Spain shows the way we might be going.

Then there’s Singapore, which has an average temperature of 28 degrees, with almost no
variation. The entire economy is built on air-conditioning, demand is constant. The average Singaporean uses ~10,000 kWh.

Now, we might not be turning into Singapore, but we might get a little more Mediterranean. If so, the investment required would be huge.

It’s not just the overall energy that we’d need to generate, but the beefing up of the grid too. If every house on the street wants a bit more electricity at the same time, that’s a BIG problem.
Planned grid upgrades are for £54 billion to be spent over the next 5 years, based on the existing UK demand curve. A few more weeks like this and that number’s going to have to jump up sharply …

Source: 7IM

Bob is the AI robotic arm, hired about 2 years ago by the recycling centre in Southwark  to help sort aluminium alongside the existing (human) workers. A really interesting example of how AI and humans interact – and it raises a few interesting things to think about.

Bob’s job isn’t pretty. He separates foil pouches from pure aluminium, picking out half full pet food packets from half empty beer cans, 24 hours a day. Mucky and boring. The people who previously did that job have moved to catching the odd exception Bob missed. They are much happier, as they are working in an area that’s cleaner and quieter, and the quality of the output has soared. Win-win.

Since Bob has joined, more people work in the recycling plant than before. Southwark only recycles 30% of its waste. The “job” is to get that higher – so there’s plenty of work to go around.

150 years ago, councils didn’t collect waste and 50 years ago, they shovelled it into holes in the ground! Today, there’s a recycling centre and all of the jobs that come with it from sorting to logistics for bin collections to , who would have thought it, tour guides!

There was a study a few years ago, which found that 60% of the US population in 2018 were doing jobs which didn’t exist in 1940.

This is the best bit,  examples of the new jobs added, by decade …

We wonder what those entries for 2030 or 2050 will look like, they certainly wont be blank.