The collaborative partnership has expanded to become a leading vehicle for UK pension funds to make long-term investments in UK infrastructure
Ten years after its founding, GLIL Infrastructure stands as one of the clearest expressions of how the UK’s pension sector can mobilise capital for the long term. With £4.1 billion in committed capital and a growing roster of local government pension funds joined by the defined contribution giant Nest, the consortium has evolved from a small experiment in direct infrastructure ownership into a mature, collaborative platform that continues to expand its reach.
“We’ve invested about £3.4 billion of capital to date,” says Jonathan Ord, head of investments at GLIL and a member of its investment committee. “We were formed in 2015 so we’ve just celebrated our ten-year anniversary, and we now have around twenty investment professionals working on the fund.”
GLIL’s origins are rooted in the local government pension scheme (LGPS) world. The partnership began in 2015 when the Greater Manchester Pension Fund and the London Pensions Fund Authority (LPFA) joined forces, each committing £250 million.
Their shared ambition was to invest directly into UK infrastructure, rather than via third-party managers. As Ord explains, the founding principle was not only to pool capital but also to pool resources. “The two investment teams came together to invest in predominantly UK core infrastructure – assets that would generate stable, inflation-linked cash flows for the pension funds.”
In 2016, GLIL’s membership expanded to include the West Yorkshire, Merseyside and Lancashire pension funds. The same year the LPFA and the Lancashire fund created the Local Pensions Partnership (LPP), which then created its investment arm LPPI.
We look for stable cash flows, high barriers to entry and inflation linkage – all the attributes you would associate with core infrastructure.
Jonathan Ord, GLIL
In 2018 GLIL became an open-end fund structure, categorised as an AIF, bringing the relationship under a new structure. “LPPI became the alternative investment fund manager for GLIL,” Ord notes. “But GLIL rests heavily on collaboration among all the pension funds. Our investment committee has representatives from the founder members, two independents, and two executive representatives.”
The platform remains open to new investors, Ord adds, but emphasises the need for shared ambition. “We’re looking for people who are aligned with our investor base.”
Core infrastructure
GLIL defines itself as a core infrastructure investor, focused primarily on the UK but able to allocate up to 25% of its capital overseas. “We’ve made one investment outside the UK to date, in Ireland,” says Ord. “We’re looking to deliver an inflation-linked return with a yield component. We look for stable cash flows, high barriers to entry and inflation linkage – all the attributes you would associate with core infrastructure.”
That focus, he says, reflects the liability profile of the pension funds behind GLIL. “The LGPS funds want to own these assets for their duration, to buy and hold for their lifetime,” he explains. “At the time we started, many infrastructure funds were closed-end, with a 10- to 15-year horizon.”
In practice, that approach translates into long-term stewardship rather than short-term rotation. The portfolio today comprises 14 assets across renewable energy, regulated utilities, digital, social and transport sectors. Around 30% of the portfolio is in renewable energy — a mix of solar, onshore wind and offshore wind. “Our investments include Clyde Wind Farm, where we’re partnered with SSE, and Hornsea, where we’re partnered with Ørsted,” Ord says.
On the transport side, GLIL has invested in rolling stock and other rail assets as well as ports, while its first digital investment came 18 months ago with Cornerstone, the mobile tower network operator that underpins UK coverage. It holds infrastructure assets through PPP and PFI vehicles and regulated entities such as drinking water supply assets.
Construction risk
Although GLIL built its reputation on acquiring operational assets, it has begun to take on more construction-phase exposure. “GLIL has always been able to take construction risk – it’s been part of our mandate,” Ord says. “Over the last 18 months our investment committee has been focused on increasing our exposure to taking construction risk. We’d like to invest in more projects where we can participate in it.”
A major example is the Haweswater Aqueduct Resilience Programme, a project to replace six tunnels that carry drinking water from the Lake District to Manchester. “It’s a significant UK project under the new direct-procurement regime,” Ord says. “We’re very excited about it.”
Another recent deal illustrates GLIL’s preference for structured partnerships. Through a joint venture with Bluefield Solar Income Fund, GLIL first acquired around 360 MW of operational assets, then expanded this year with 250 MW of new-build solar, while also refinancing the portfolio. “It’s a multi-pronged relationship with Bluefield,” Ord says, pointing to a broader trend of long-term collaboration with like-minded investors.
Navigating policy
With Labour in government and new infrastructure priorities emerging, Ord is pragmatic about policy cycles. “We obviously keep a close eye on what government is doing,” he says. “But we are a long-term investor. Today in the portfolio, the majority of assets were operational when we bought them, though we’ve been investing more in new-build assets recently.”
GLIL’s long horizon gives it insulation from short-term political change, but not indifference. “Whenever we make investment decisions, political risk is one of the things we consider among a whole host of other factors,” Ord says.
He welcomes efforts such as the government’s 10-year infrastructure plan, designed to coordinate public and private stakeholders. “That’s a very helpful step,” he says. “It brings long-term thinking back into infrastructure.”
On pricing, Ord is careful not to over-generalise. “It’s still early days,” he says of government-sponsored projects. “From our perspective, we look at every project on a standalone basis – whether it makes sense from a risk-reward perspective.”
ESG and stewardship
Environmental, social and governance factors are embedded in GLIL’s process. “ESG and stewardship are very important to GLIL,” Ord says. “We have an ESG policy that’s embedded in our investment process, and we’ve signed up to the Institutional Investor Group on Climate Change. We see ourselves as long-term stewards of these assets, and climate is a major component of our ESG policy.”
That commitment has become increasingly central to infrastructure investors’ licence to operate. GLIL’s positioning allows it to align public-sector capital with the UK’s decarbonisation goals, while maintaining commercial discipline. “There’s always an element of risk – otherwise we’d be buying bonds,” Ord says. “We always need to take on some form of risk to meet our return targets, but we focus on investments where that risk is suitably mitigated.”
Market conditions
After a buoyant pre-Covid period, Ord describes the current market as “a little more muted”, though he sees opportunity for those with capital ready to deploy. “Being a buyer of assets and having dry powder can help you negotiate better transactions and better pricing.”
He acknowledges that higher government borrowing costs have rippled through the market. “If government borrowing costs are higher, that impacts pricing in the rest of the market,” he says.
Infrastructure valuations have adjusted accordingly. “We’ve seen returns in the market increase over the last two or three years as interest rates have gone up around the world,” Ord notes. Even so, he does not expect higher rates to halt project development. “As financing costs go up, construction would become more expensive,” he concedes, “but I’m not sure fewer projects would go ahead.”
Looking ahead, Ord expects GLIL’s pipeline to remain broad but focused on two themes: the energy transition and digitalisation. “The energy transition is not only about generating green electrons but also decarbonising transport and other areas,” he says. “I fully expect us to be doing more in digitalisation, especially data centres.”
GLIL has been tracking data-centre opportunities for nearly two years. “There are various entry points,” Ord explains. “We’re looking for ones that align closely with our risk appetite.”
Collaboration as a differentiator
For Ord, collaboration remains GLIL’s defining feature. “If you speak to a lot of other infrastructure funds, the thing that perhaps makes us unique is our collaboration among the investors,” he says. “GLIL was created by pension funds for pension funds. We’re collaborating within the LGPS funds, and we brought Nest in – that helps unlock scale and ultimately impact.”
Partnering with other investors to invest in large assets is common within the sector, he adds. “Given the scale of the assets, investors generally partner with others to invest in the infrastructure businesses. For example, for our investment in the M6 Toll Road, we partnered with IFM Investors among others. Assets like these typically have up to six investors.”
That spirit of shared ownership — between public pensions, institutional partners and professional managers — underpins GLIL’s model. After a decade of investing, the model that began as an experiment in pooling has matured into a proven framework for long-term, collaborative infrastructure investment in the UK.
Fund facts
- Established: 2015
- AuM: £4.1 billion committed and £3.4 billion invested, as of 31 March 2025
- Partners: Initially Greater Manchester and London Pensions Fund Authority; then the West Yorkshire, Merseyside and Lancashire pension funds; most recently Nest
- Investments: 14 projects spanning renewables installations, utilities, telecoms and transport assets