Agenda item

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

Members received a report of the Executive Director of Communications and External Affairs regarding an update on Corporate Affairs activity. The following matters were raised:-

·         It was remarked that recent updates to the Sub-Committee have been retrospective, and Members were keen to get a strategic oversight of future projects. Comments were made about appropriate benchmarking to help measure success.

·         There was a good mix of engagement between the Conservative and Labour Parties, with officers clearly responding to earlier feedback by exploring options for events, and Think Tanks.

·         It was noted that the City Corporation abstained on a recent vote of confidence at the CBI. The position would continue to be closely monitored.

·         The Communications Team continued to work closely with Innovation and Growth on Financial Services and Markets Bill matters.

·         A question was raised about the current list of the City Corporation’s Memberships and Subscriptions. It was confirmed that this matter had gone to Policy & Resources Committee recently and a copy of the report was to be circulated to the Sub-Committee.

·         The new Executive Director of Communications and External Affairs would be responsible for a new engagement strategy. As part of that, in future, it was planned that a consolidated Communications Report would be presented, featuring Corporate Affairs, Media and other updates.

·         Given the success of the Coronation Social Media Campaign, Members were keen to see updates on this specific area.

·         Following a question about Livery engagement, Members were advised that this had improved significantly however, the next step was to be better at reporting this activity and consider how best to do this.

RESOLVED, that the report be noted.