Giving evidence to the Work and Pensions Committee, minister for pensions Steve Webb said that so far under auto-enrolment competition among pension providers to provide schemes for large employers had been "possibly fiercer than had been imagined".
The Freedom pension will be invested in the funds offered by pension providers NPI and Friends Provident, both of which have a strong track record in ethical in vesting.
Friends Provident has also imposed a six-month deferral period, and other pension providers may well follow.
Our neighbours in France are ahead of us when it comes to putting nest eggs to good use and offering individuals choice – they require that pension providers must offer the option of at least one "solidarity fund", which provides a mix of socially-responsible and high-impact social investments, meaning money goes to socially-driven businesses.
The restriction is not applicable to other pension providers.
Labour is arguing that pension providers must acquire scale and lower costs to savers.
One downside is that pension providers will not be required by law to offer this facility.
The government has said there will be a legal obligation on pension providers to offer advice.
For some pension providers the consequences are likely to be catastrophic.
Aviva, one of Britain's biggest pension providers, interviewed 500 companies and 2,000 employees.
But how far pension providers are really up for this is still a moot point.
