The chief executive of the Pensions Regulator(TPR), who has come in for criticism over her handling of successive crises at BHS and Carillion, has stepped down.
Lesley Titcomb said she had taken the “difficult personal decision” to leave the regulator at the end of her four-year contract in February 2019.
Her departure comes only weeks after a report by two parliamentary committees investigating the collapse of the government contractor Carillion lambasted the regulator’s “feeble response” to the company’s underfunding of its pension scheme, suggesting it required new leadership.
The scheme, which has a deficit of £2.6bn on some measures, has since been taken on by the government’s lifeboat for struggling retirement funds, the Pension Protection Fund.
In a section of the report devoted to the regulator, MPs said: “It has said it will be quicker, bolder and more proactive. It certainly needs to be.
“But this will require substantial cultural change in an organisation where a tentative and apologetic approach is ingrained.
“We are far from convinced that TPR’s current leadership is equipped to effect that change.”
Titcomb, who earned £225,000 in 2016-17, including a bonus of up to £20,000, had already promised to review the regulator’s operations in a project called TPR Future.
The review was launched after earlier criticism from MPs related to the failure of the department store chain BHS, which collapsed with a £571m pension deficit.
She did not refer to the criticism she faced over BHS and Carillion, saying the time was right for her to stand down.
“This has been a difficult personal decision taken after extensive discussion with family and the chairman,” she said.
“I love working at TPR and am immensely proud of what we are achieving. But as I turn 57 next month, the end of my contract in February 2019 feels like the appropriate moment to find more time in my life for family, friends, other interests and opportunities.”
TPR chairman, Mark Boyle, said: “We respect her decision but will be very sorry to lose her. She has been a real catalyst for change, working with energy and drive to get results and make a difference to the way we work.”
