Lesley Titcomb, chief executive of The Pensions Regulator, has denied that she’s leaving the job due to pressure from MPs, even though she considers some of the Parliamentary hearings have been “quite challenging”.
In her first interview since announcing her departure last Friday (31 May), Ms Titcomb said that the decision to leave the watchdog was a "personal choice".
She said: “It's something I've been talking about, thinking about, for weeks, months, with friends and family, and the chairman of TPR," she told FTAdviser.
“I think that the end of a contract like this presents an opportunity to re-evaluate.
"I want to find time for other things in life, and being a CEO is very much a full-time job.”
TPR has been heavily criticised for its role in the Carillion collapse, with MPs accusing it of making "hollow threats" and failing “in all its objectives".
Carillion had 13 final defined benefit (DB) in the UK with more than 28,500 members when the company essentially folded, and an aggregate deficit for PPF purposes of around £800m.
It is expected that 11 of these plans will ultimately end up in the pensions lifeboat, with the vast majority of these already in assessment at the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).
IN the wake of Carillion, the work and pensions, and the business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS) committees called for cultural change at the watchdog, saying they were "far from convinced that The Pensions Regulator's current leadership is equipped to effect that change."
Despite the MPs criticism, Ms Titcomb argued that parliamentary accountability is really important for a body such as TPR.
She said: “I think it is only right that the parliament challenges us on how we are using those powers ourselves.”
However, she revealed that “it is difficult to look back and to defend or to explain with hindsight what happened”.
This was the circumstance in the Carillion case, where Ms Titcomb was called to give account of the watchdog’s work going back more than five years.
She said: “We have to do the best in the circumstances.
“Far more importantly is the need to get across the message of how the organisation has changed already, since the time all of that took place.
“That was quite challenging in the committee, I didn't get many opportunities to do that, but we are changed already, we are changing further and there is more to come.”
A good example, she argued, is the GKN/Melrose takeover, where the watchdog was involved in the negotiations, and “made very clear” what its expectations were.
She said: “That is a good example of us being clearer, and quicker, and I think nobody was left in any doubt that we would have been tougher if we needed to, but thankfully we were heard.”
Ms Titcomb took the helm at TPR in March 2015 after a five-year stint as chief operating officer at the Financial Conduct Authority and its predecessor, the Financial Services Authority.
The regulator will now have nine months to find a successor, since Ms Titcomb will be leaving in February.
Questioned about the advice she would give to the future TPR chief, she said: “It's a fantastic place to work, enjoy yourself.
“It's challenging and interesting as every day is different, have plenty of stamina.”
Ms Titcomb hasn’t decided what she will do next.
She said: “I'm very much in post for next nine months, we shall be going flat out, making all the changes that we talked about at TPR, which are already in train, working through our TPR future programme.
“After the next nine months, I should need a rest. The one thing I'm sure is that I won't be working full time.”
maria.espadinha@ft.com
