Poole pension savers helping to rebuild the high street

Did you know that your pension may be helping rejuvenate the high street?

Workplace pension provider Nest safeguards around £43 billion assets on behalf of its 13.3m members. Nest has more than £8.5 billion invested in UK projects and expects to have £20 billion invested in the UK by the end of the decade. One of those projects is Kingland Crescent, outside Poole’s Dolphin Centre.

Kingland Crescent was regenerated in 2020 by Legal & General, with the help of investment from Nest, as part of a scheme to support start-up businesses and attract more shoppers.

In the first year of the rebranded KINGLAND’s opening, this led to £2.2 million in additional sales for operators in The Dolphin, created 31 new jobs, and increased footfall by 16 per cent.

The original businesses at KINGLAND benefitted from no rent or business rates for the first two years of the scheme. Nest estimates that around 130,000 people in the Poole district who have a pension with the provider contributed to this project.

One of those 10 original businesses was Wild Roots. Thanks to strong business performance, the houseplant and homeware store has expanded into the next-door unit, doubling its store size. The refurbished store was due to open at the end of October.

Storeowner Hope Dean started her business after being made redundant in the pandemic. Hope said: “I pay into a Nest pension myself and am a Nest employer, but I had no idea that my pension is invested in local assets such as KINGLAND. This means that in a way myself and my team are reinvesting in our business and so are everyday people in the community.

“I am thankful to Legal & General and its partners such as Nest. Without the support I gratefully received, I couldn’t have opened the store and made my dream a reality.”