Communities minister Eric Pickles is shortly to write to the UK's local councils, asking for some ideas about merging their £150bn pension funds. There are a few he might like to consider.

At stake is hundreds of millions of pounds in investment fees paid to City fund managers every year - £347m in 2011/2, according to analysis by the Daily Telegraph this week. A central argument for merging the funds is to make cost savings, as larger pension funds tend to pay less in fees than larger ones.