Mark Hyde Harrison, chairman of the National Association of Pension Funds, has slammed the European Commission’s proposed Solvency II reforms, saying they would undermine UK pension provision and cost £300bn.

Solvency II, originally developed for insurance companies, is designed to improve levels of risk control. But Hyde Harrison, speaking at the NAPF annual conference in Liverpool on Wednesday, warned this would force pension schemes to pay a high price to invest in risk-free assets. He said: "Rather than improve pensions security, this directive would damage it in the UK and elsewhere in the European Union. We have estimated that the aggregate cost to defined-benefit pension schemes in the UK would be at least £300bn.