Twenty-five years ago, UK pension funds held around 40% of their assets in UK companies. Today it's 4% — about a trillion pounds of UK shares sold along the way. In his opening keynote at Investor Summit 2026, Charles Hall, Head of Research at Peel Hunt, argues that where we put our savings is a growth strategy in itself. He covers why most people have no idea their default pension sends 60p in every pound to the US, what the Mansion House Accord and the new IPO rules actually change, and why the UK's 80 unicorns — worth £240bn between them — need somewhere at home to list. He also pushes back on the gloom. The UK market is up 85% over five years, the same as the S&P 500, and Charles makes the case that there has never been a better time to be an investor.
