The Lady Mayor of the City of London, Susan Langley, is travelling to Australia this week in her role as the UK’s ambassador for financial and professional services.
Her visit aims to deepen investment ties between the two countries and promote Britain as a long-term destination for global capital amid ongoing market volatility.
Australia’s superannuation pension funds manage trillions in assets and have built a long-term, globally minded investment approach that many countries, including the UK, actively admire.
Langley has welcomed the UK government’s new “Supers Unit”, a body designed to strengthen engagement with global pension funds, particularly those based in Australia.
The unit aims to unlock greater flows of capital into UK growth sectors, signalling that Britain is serious about partnering with long-term institutional investors.
New research from the City of London Corporation shows the UK continues to lead Europe as the top destination for foreign direct investment in financial and professional services, creating more than 12,000 new jobs across the country in 2025.
Australian pension funds already hold substantial investments in the UK, with strong potential for further growth in infrastructure, real estate and private markets, according to Langley.
The visit also carries a learning dimension. The UK is working to unlock more long-term capital from its own pension system to support growth, innovation and the transition to net zero.
Central to that effort is the Mansion House Accord, a commitment by pension providers to allocate a greater share of defined contribution funds into private markets.
Currently, only around three per cent of UK pension assets sit in private markets, compared with significantly higher levels in Australia, a gap the accord seeks to close.
Closing that gap matters not just for investment returns but for the broader economy, including backing British businesses, financing infrastructure and giving savers a share in national growth.
The accord could unlock tens of billions of pounds into high-growth sectors by the end of the decade, though Langley has stressed that delivery depends on building the right vehicles and market infrastructure.
That is where Australia’s experience becomes relevant. The country has successfully scaled these capabilities over many years and offers a practical model for what the UK is trying to achieve.
Langley sees a clear alignment between the Supers Unit and the Mansion House Accord, describing both as efforts to mobilise long-term capital more effectively for UK economic growth.
During her time in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, she will meet with investors, policymakers and industry leaders to build what she describes as a modern partnership between the two countries.