Agenda item

The Chairman welcomed and introduced Mark Johnson and Rob Wirszycz – both members of the Financial Services Group (FSG) of Livery Companies.

It was noted that a copy of the 2024 FSG Mayoral & City Briefing had been circulated to all ahead of the meeting for context.

Mr Johnson and Mr Wirszycz reported that the FSG was made up of 15 Guilds and Livery Companies who were active in their current professions. They spoke on the purpose of the briefing and how this had been developed. Last year had seen the Group produce a paper for the immediate past Lord Mayor who had responded with feedback seeking further challenge in future such reports. This year’s version therefore more proactively highlighted areas where the Group felt they might be able to assist the current Lord Mayor in achieving his objective of ‘Unleashing Growth’ as opposed to being purely complimentary of the City.

In terms of the key points emerging from the briefing, the following were highlighted to the Committee:

·       The need to avoid London & the City becoming less relevant and less globally competitive;

·       The focus of Regulation & Regulators should be to enhance competitiveness - not blunt it;

·       The City is only as good as its talent pool – the need to cast our net wider;

·       The need to reverse the decline in the influence and attractiveness of the LSE;

·       The path to ‘net zero’ provides London with an opportunity for global leadership;

·       The City must embrace the potential for AI while appropriately managing the risks;

·       All stakeholders need to come together to develop a long-term vision for the City.

During the process of gathering information for the briefing, contributors were also asked to identify headwinds and tailwinds which were highlighted to the Committee. The key message here was the need for early risk identification alongside appropriate mitigation to help maintain the attractiveness of the City as a Financial and Professional Services Centre and avoid any ‘chipping away’ of this. It was underlined that the City had many ‘bright spots’ but the presenters warned against any form of complacency and highlighted the need to defend and build London and the City’s position.

The presenters concluded by articulating that the FSG would like to explore a formal route for their views to input into City Corporation Strategy and were keen to be more productive and help create a shared risk register and mitigation plan for the City. They welcomed any feedback as to how the document and any future interaction with the FSG might be improved going forward.

The Chairman thanked both for their contributions and invited questions from the floor.

An Alderman questioned what the FSG’s top priority was and what their solution to tackling this might be. Mr Johnson reported that the FSG was going through an inflection at present and were looking to be a lot more focused going forward. The Group would be meeting later this month to hone in on their top 5 priorities. The Aldermen commented that the Livery was a key element here in terms of developing a common agenda. Mr Wirszycz highlighted that the notion of a risk register was important here as this would be a mechanism by which multiple parties might work together to solve and mitigate issues.

Another Alderman queried where the FSGs value add might be and stated that, to his mind, this was around condensing the sectoral expertise within the Group and across the Livery to act as a conduit here which was hugely powerful.  

Mr Johnson and Mr Wirsszycz concurred with these points and noted that the Livery was not a trade association but was made up of individuals, many of whom had had very successful careers and were still active in their respective fields. The marrying together of this in the way that the Alderman had already described made for extremely valuable input.

An Alderman spoke to commend the format of this year’s briefing – synthesising the key themes across all 15 companies. He added that the connection with the various trade bodies was also interesting to note, observing that such bodies within various specialist sectors were not always the most effective at coordinating on points of common interest. This could therefore be an areas where the FSG plugged a gap.

Another Alderman commented upon the diversity deficit and queried what Livery initiatives might be underway to help address this and whether the Court of Aldermen may be able to assist in this endeavour. He also queried whether any thought had been given to including the GLA and the Mayor of London to help with the bigger picture issues highlighted within the briefing and the presentation. The presenters stated that they would be interested in input from the Court of Aldermen as to how they might engage the Mayor of London politically and practically going forward. With regard to diversity, it was acknowledged that this was top of the agenda for many Liveries at present with many now already making progress in the right direction. It was, however, recognised that this was still very much a work in progress. Many Livery Companies were also looking to outreach which also needed to increase going forward in terms of creating a pathway from schools and families into City professions, ensuring that the message of the City being a place for all was well communicated.

In terms of the ask put forward by the FSG at the end of their presentation, the Deputy Chairman undertook to feedback to the Group on the specific questions posed.