Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Ruby Sayed and Caroline Haines. Alderman Michael Mainelli, Deputy Rehana Ameer and Tijs Broeke also issued apologies, but were observing the meeting online.

There were no declarations of interest.

To agree the public minutes of the meeting held on 14 June 2023.

The Town Clerk confirmed that Jason Groves was omitted from the attendance list, in error.

RESOLVED – That the public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 14 June 2023 be approved as a correct record subject to the addition of Jason Groves to the attendee list.

Report of the Town Clerk.

Members received a report of the Town Clerk concerning outstanding actions of the Sub-Committee.

·       3/2022/P will be closed off later this year when the Sub-Committee received the next Party Conference Update report.

·       1/2023/P would be closed off as this had been actioned.

·       2/2023/P – the Environment Department was undertaking further exploratory work with the City Surveyor’s ahead of an update to Resource Allocation Sub-Committee (which was now responsible for Operational Property). Until then the communications campaign was paused.

RESOLVED, that the report be noted.

Report of the Executive Director of Corporate Communications and External Affairs.

Members received a report of the Executive Director of Corporate Communications and External Affairs regarding an update on the Department’s work.

Members acknowledged there was a lot of work to do in this area to draw together the various facets of the City as a complex, historic, organisation, and expressed support for the new Executive Director in considering a new strategy.

It was felt that some areas of engagement had not yet been mastered (e.g. with the residential community) and that campaigns such as the City Belonging could be a good vehicle for improvement.

Whilst helpful to have a report that reflected actions taken, it was requested that future iterations have a more detailed ‘forward look’.

The success of the Mansion House Compact was noted, and thanks given to all those involved in its development.

There was some concern expressed over the use of the Advertising Value Equivalent metric and consequently a question was raised over the right mechanism for the City Corporation to better evaluate the success of any Communications Strategy. It was speculated that this would likely require greater staffing resource, but that co-ordinating the pockets of communications teams/officers across the organisation and its institutions, may help.

The Sub-Committee requested to see a copy of the proposed work plan of the Executive Director, ahead of its next meeting.

RESOLVED, that the report be noted.

Report of the City Remembrancer.

Members received an report of the Remembrancer regarding an update on the Parliamentary Team’s activities.

The Remembrancer summarised briefly the material within the report, highlighting various areas of work relating to the Levelling Up Bill; revisions to the Housing Act; River Pollution; the Online Safety Bill; Parliamentary Boundaries and City of London (Markets) Bill.

There was concern expressed over a recent report of the Tony Blair Institute that proposed the disbandment of the National Lead Force model. The Remembrancer provided assurance to Members that the Parliamentary Team were working closely with the Chair of the City of London Police Authority Board, the Police Authority Team and the Force, along with the Communications and Corporate Affair’s Team, in monitoring the situation.

RESOLVED, that the report be noted.

Report of the City Remembrancer.

Members received a report of the Remembrancer regarding the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023.

The Remembrancer provided a brief summary of the changes to take effect and the City’s broader engagement.

RESOLVED, that the report be noted.

There were no questions.

The Chairman drew two pieces of work to Members’ attention and sought their assistance in amplifying messaging through social media and any other appropriate platforms:

• Consultation and insight gathering exercise for new Corporate Plan; and
• The imminent launch of the “Vision for Economic Growth – a roadmap to prosperity” report.

MOTION - That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

There were no questions or urgent items to be considered whilst the public were excluded and so the meeting was concluded at this point, in public session.

There were no questions.

There were no items of urgent business.