High Court approves settlement and grants rectification in respect of the Places for People Group Retirement Benefit Scheme

On 19 December 2025, the High Court (Richards J) handed down judgment in Places for People Pension Trustee Limited v Places for People Group Limited & Ors [2025] EWHC 3371 (Ch). Barristers from the Outer Temple Chambers Pensions Law Team were instructed for the Trustee and the Representative Beneficiary.

The judgment approved a settlement agreed between the parties and granting rectification of several deeds of amendment in respect of the Places for People Group Retirement Benefit Scheme, a defined benefit, contracted-out occupational pension scheme with a total of 1,761 members as at 31 March 2024.

This case is one of the most complex pensions claims ever brought before the courts of England and Wales, raising multiple questions concerning the validity of eight deeds of amendment to the Scheme rules between 1993 and 2007. The validity questions raised by this case spanned a range of issues relating to purported defective execution of the Scheme’s governing documents (“the Validity Issues”), and the extent to which such defects could be saved by reference to several equitable doctrines and other devices, as well as the effects of non-compliance with s.37 of the Pension Schemes Act 1993 (“the Section 37 Issues”). The case also concerned one of the most extensive rectification claims ever brought to court, seeking to rectify various errors that had been made across five deeds of amendment to the Scheme rules between 1993 and 2011 (“the Rectification Claims”).

After having discovered the various issues with the Scheme’s governing documents and identified a member of the Scheme, Ms Parkinson, willing to act as a prospective Representative Beneficiary, in 2022 the Trustee and Places for People Group Limited (“the Principal Employer”) sought to take steps to enter into a settlement with Ms Parkinson. Following three years of negotiations, the parties agreed a settlement in relation to the Validity and Section 37 Issues and Ms Parkinson also confirmed that she would not oppose the Rectification Claims proposed to be brought by the Trustee. As Richards J noted in his judgment, “It is no exaggeration to say that, if all of the issues … were litigated, the trial would be of quite formidable complexity and cost” and that “Given the complexity of the Issues, the Settlement also is highly complex”. It is thought that, proportionately with the issues raised, this is one of the most complex pension settlements ever agreed, given the mechanics required to distribute the settlement value to different categories of members of the Scheme in different ways.

Due to the fact that the Trustee bringing the claim and the Representative Beneficiary were each acting in representative capacities on behalf of their respective classes, as is the norm in these types of pensions claims, the settlement needed to be approved in accordance with CPR r 19.9. A hearing to approve the settlement and try the rectification claim was heard before Richards J on 11 and 12 December 2025. He handed down judgment on 19 December 2025 approving the settlement and granting the rectification sought by the Trustee.

Read the Judgment

Read the full judgment here: Places for People Pension Trustee Limited v (1) Places for People Group Limited, (2) Places for People Homes Limited, and (3) Susan Parkinson [2025] EWHC 3371 (Ch)

Find out more

Andrew Spink KC, David E. Grant KC, Saul Margo and Joshua Cainer were instructed on behalf of the Trustee by Nicholas Heaton, Matthew Bullen, Nathan Sherlock and Bethany Bowen of Hogan Lovells International LLP.

Keith Bryant KC and Naomi Ling were instructed on behalf of the Representative Beneficiary by Charles Crowne, Katherine King and Katie Rutherford of Osborne Clarke LLP.

Jonathan Hilliard KC, Sebastian Allen and Ram Lakshman of Wilberforce Chambers were instructed on behalf of Places for People Group Limited and Places for People Homes Limited by Hayley Goldstone, Liam Fitzgerald and Lisa Suares of Pinsent Masons LLP.

To find out more about this case and the above members of our Pensions Law Team, contact Matt Sale on +44 (0)20 7427 4910 for a confidential discussion.

News 23 Dec, 2025