Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Aldermen Sir William Russell (Chairman), The Rt. Hon. The Lord Mayor, Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli, Alderman Nicholas Lyons, Alderman Alastair King, Alderman Robert Howard, Alderwoman and Sheriff Dame Susan Langley, Alderman and Sheriff Bronek Masojada, Alderwoman Susan Pearson and Alderman Simon Pryke.

There were no declarations.

To approve the public minutes and non-public minute summary of the last meeting of the General Purposes Committee of Aldermen held on 6 February 2024.

The Committee considered the minutes of the last meeting of the General Purposes Committee of Aldermen held on 6 February 2024.

RESOLVED: - That the minutes of the last meeting of the General Purposes Committee of Aldermen held on 6 February 2024 be approved as an accurate record of the meeting.

To approve the Aldermanic nominations for appointments onto the City Corporation’s committees in 2024/2025.

The Committee considered a report of the Town Clerk concerning nominations for the appointment of Aldermen on those City of London Corporation Committees on which they have reserved spaces for the civic year 2024/25 commencing on 25^th April 2024.

The Deputy Chair reported that the appointments presented here for formal approval were the result of conversations with individual Aldermen. It was highlighted that there was one amendment proposed since the time of writing and that was that Alderman Alex Barr be appointed to the Gresham (City Side) Committee as opposed to Alderwoman & Sheriff Dame Susan Langley.

An Alderman queried the approach that should be taken where they might wish to stand for wider vacancies advertised to the full Court of Common Council for those Committees on which there were already a number of Aldermanic spaces reserved. The Town Clerk responded to state that, by convention, Aldermen did not seek to contest wider vacancies open to Common Councillors on these Committees. It was highlighted that there were also a number of Committees on which the Aldermen did not have reserved spots and that it was perfectly acceptable for them to contest vacancies on these alongside Common Council colleagues.

The Town Clerk clarified that details in terms of years of service should include those served as both Common Councillors and Aldermen where applicable and that figures here would be checked and verified ahead of featuring on the White Paper to be submitted to the Court of Common Council on 25^th April 2024.

Resolved: - That the Aldermen:

i)       Approve the nominations set out in the report and authorise their submission to the Court of Common Council at its meeting on 27^th April 2023, excluding the appointments to the Honourable Irish Society which will had been settled separately on 9th

The Committee of Aldermen to Administer the Sir William Coxen Trust Fund
To approve the appointment of Alderman Sir Andrew Parmley to the Committee of Aldermen to Administer the Sir William Coxen Trust for a second, three-year term concluding in December 2026

RESOLVED: That Alderman Sir Andrew Parmley be re-appointed to the .Committee of Aldermen to Administer the Sir William Coxen Trust for a second, three-year term concluding in December 2026.

The Chairman welcomed Emily Tofield, Executive Director of Corporate Communications and External Affairs and Kristy Sandino, Assistant Director of Corporate Affairs.

The Executive Director highlighted that she intended to provide an update in terms of progress on transformation, increased focus on strategic political engagement and alignment with Labour’s Financial Services policy which was something that this Committee had expressed an interest in and some key upcoming milestones and general election priorities. With regard to transformation work, the Executive Director referenced the update report recently shared with the Policy and Resources Committee and also circulated to all today. This provided a comprehensive update on all activity that had been taking place over a number of areas. Since the time of writing this update report, the Communications and Corporate Affairs Business Plan had now been approved by the Policy and Resources Committee. This set out the core workstreams which were now underway with a view to building the Corporation’s first Communications Strategy in a decade - something which members of the Communications and Corporate Affairs Sub-Committee in particular but also members of the wider Court had been engaged with and reached out on. It was reported that there were two reviews referenced within the Business Plan that were now underway and would inform the Communications Strategy – one of these was a Stakeholder Review, something which was being undertaken for the first time by the organisation and the other was the Branding Review. The Executive Director reported that a comprehensive Stakeholder Review seeking to map and understand how the organisation could best involve, engage with, communicate and hear from its stakeholders was critical given its complexity. It was highlighted that there would be a number of phases to the Review and that these would be reported to the Communications and Corporate Affairs

Alderman Tim Levene gave a presentation on ‘The UK’s Fintech Opportunity’ highlighting that this had formed one of the key pillars of work for both the Lord Mayor and Chair of Policy in recent years.

Alderman Levene stressed that the UK was a real leader in this area, with the industry currently employing approximately £76,000 people and contributing 11 billion to the economy. He added that for every £1 invested in the European Fintech ecosystem, more than 50% of this originated from the UK. In terms of funding globally, the UK ranked second with over 10% of all global fintech financing hailing from here.

The Alderman went on to speak about how collaboration was also key in terms of being a global leader and the importance of a supportive government, supportive set of regulators and a positive and constructive central bank which the UK had in the Bank of England. These collaborators had worked alongside and underpinned the funding requirements to really enable the UK to thrive across several governments.

It was estimated that, over the next few years, around 50,000 new jobs would be created in the industry making it a significant employer not just in the UK but in the City of London in particular. In 2015/16 fintech companies were surrounding the City in its fringe boroughs but an increasing amount had moved into the Square Mile in the past 2-3 years and there was a clear opportunity to attract more in the coming years.

The Alderman went on to focus on market trends, remarking that market sentiment continued to be relatively challenging despite the fact that there continued to be a rather significant market opportunity. In terms of listed fintech total market capitalisation, it was highlighted that ‘payments’ still dominated. There had been some significant drops, such

Report of the Executive Director &  Private Secretary to the Lord Mayor.

The Committee received a report of the Executive Director Private Secretary to the Lord Mayor outlining the proposed mayoral theme to be championed, subject to election, by the Lord Mayor of London 2024-25, Alderman Alastair King.

It was reported that, whilst each Lord Mayor took on the role of Ambassador for the UK Financial Professional Services Sector, each approached this in a way that they could best shine their own light on the position, taking into account their own expertise and background and thereby adding the most value to the role.

It was reported that Alderman King had been busy engaging with many external stakeholders, a broad range of teams across the organisation, Members and the Livery to develop his Mayoral Theme – Ambition, Renewal, Growth (working title) and some ideas around a draft programme to underpin this. A finalised version of this would be presented to the next meeting of this Committee. The theme intended to ensure that the City was recognised as a leading financial and professional services (FPS) hub and sought to empower the City and its communities to seize opportunities, maximise growth and succeed.

The programme was split into two themes – the first being competitiveness and the second communities. Competitiveness would have a focus on encouraging FPS to be adopters of tech and to challenge organisations to be responsible yet seize opportunities in terms of risk. Work to date with CityUK and the City’s own Communications and Corporate Affairs team indicated a lot of alignment with wider government policies. The communities element would work to ensure that there were opportunities for the City’s residents and communities to achieve as much as possible, for them to be celebrated and to shine a light on their contributions.

Work internally had been undertaken to ensure that the proposed

There were no questions.

There were no additional, urgent items of business for consideration.

MOTION - That, in accordance with the Court of Aldermen’s Disclosure Arrangement (Standing Order 25), the public shall be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the General Purposes Committee of Aldermen have determined, having had due regard to the Disclosure Arrangement, that disclosure should not be permitted.

RESOLVED - That, in accordance with the Court of Aldermen’s Disclosure Arrangement (Standing Order 25), the public shall be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the General Purposes Committee of Aldermen have determined, having had due regard to the Disclosure Arrangement, that disclosure should not be permitted.

To approve the non-public minutes of the last meeting of the General Purposes Committee of Aldermen held on 6 February 2024.

The Committee considered and approved the non-public minutes of the last meeting of the General Purposes Committee of Aldermen held on 6 February 2024.

Joint report of the Town Clerk, the Comptroller & City Solicitor and the Remembrancer.

The Committee considered and approved a joint report of the Town Clerk, the Comptroller & City Solicitor and the Remembrancer setting out the constitutional basis of both Honorary Ward Clerks and Ward Beadles and setting out some specific proposals for consideration in order to address issues raised to date.

The Town Clerk updated the Committee on work regarding Communications and Stakeholder Engagement being undertaken by Aldermanic Strategy Group Three.

Aldermen reported on recent wider Committee issues.

There were no questions raised in non-public session.

There were no additional, urgent items of business for consideration in the non-public session.