Susanna,
Retirement funding: Pensions or ISAs, or other ideas.
The big pluses for a pension have always been (a) you have locked the money away, and can't "fritter it away" on short-term expenditure like furniture, new car, holidays, etc, which are perhaps less important than running out of money in retirement at a time when you probably can't improve the position by working longer; (b) tax advantages for those whose income while working is being taxed at higher rates (40% upwards), while their expected income in retirement will drop down to basic rate tax levels (20% or thereabouts).
The big minuses for a pension are currently: (a) pension annuity rates are currently 'down on the floor' - i.e. you get very little pension relative to the amount of money saved up in the pension fund. It has not always been like this, but for the last few years the problem has been particularly acute. Who knows when/whether it will swing back the other way? (b) you can't draw on the money in the pension fund in order to deal with sudden emergencies. It's not much fun starving to death/losing your home after failing to pay the mortgage, through lack of ready cash, while knowing that you have a pension fund that you can't touch.
A lot of the answer is going to be dependent on personal attitudes: if you have a steely determination to pile up money in retirement funds, and are prepared, if necessary, to live more economically rather than spend your retirement funds in advance, then there's no real reason why ISAs are 'wrong' compared with using a pension.
If the person saving for retirement is a basic-rate taxpayer while working, the tax advantages of a pension diminish further.
What do you do about the existing Norwich Union pension? If it is a unit-linked one, what is the current total value of the units held v. the money paid in NET of tax relief received? There should be a statement showing the position at the last policy anniversary. If not, why not? Try asking N/U for an up-to-date statement of money paid in v. current value of fund, if there is no statement. If the pension policy is not unit-linked, we are back in the land of opaque information - it is not much point talking about current and future projected bonus rates, because that tells you very little about the expected value in 20 or 25 years' time.
Getting a pension transferred form the existing provider to another one is fraught with complexity. Typically, there may be an exit charge (does the cost make it unwise to change provider?) Most people take the route (or consider taking the route) of transferring the pension policy into a SIPP, if the value is enough to warrant the move on economic grounds - but you can't take ANY fund money out in cash, whether it's with N/U or in a SIPP, until the minimum legal retirement age for pension purposes (usually 55).
You should also check whether N/U had set a later retirement age at which to draw the benefits - there may be a charge for drawing the pension earlier if they did. Specialist advice is needed when switching pensions, but sadly, the advisory fees may outweigh the benefits. Do lots of detailed calculations before making a decision.
If it seems that the existing pension is not particularly brilliant, and IF it can be made 'paid-up' without to much financial damage, one solution MAY be to divert future pension savings into ISAs (up to £10,000 or so per annum), as this will get rid of the low annuity rate problem on future retirement savings.
As always, there is much to commend generalist investment trusts for long-term savings.
Hope that helps.