Pension funds worth £350bn have warned that relaxing rules around company listings will not fix the City’s beleaguered stock market. The Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF) said it was “very concerned” about the active role played by the London Stock Exchange in calling for weaker UK governance standards to attract more investors. The group, which represents 87 public sector pension funds, singled out the central role played by London Stock Exchange chief executive, Julia Hoggett, as chairman of lobby group Capital Markets Industry Taskforce (CMIT). The LAPFF criticised the CMIT’s main message that the UK had lost stock market listings, primarily to the US, because of overly onerous rules. In a letter to Don Robert, chairman of the London Stock Exchange Group, LAPFF said: “It is important that public policymaking is evidence-based. However, we are concerned that the positions being taken by CMIT are neither evidence-based nor balanced, and some positions have little credibility in basic terms.” The CMIT, made up of heavyweight City chief executives and chairmen, last year lobbied against the Financial Reporting Council’s proposed changes to the corporate governance code which threatened to increase burdensome reporting requirements on businesses. Its opposition followed concerns that the proposals...