A survey of companies' pension costs by consultants Lane, Clark & Peacock, due out on Thursday, will show how companies are disclosing the cost of sponsoring occupational pension schemes at a time when those costs are expected to increase.

Companies have benefited from high stock market returns in the 1990s, but investment professionals do not expect this pattern to continue. Barclays Capital, for example, has reviewed the returns of the past century and concluded that, although equities will continue to provide a better long term return than gilts, the outperformance will be lower in the century to come than in the century just gone.