Agenda item

Report of the Executive Director for Innovation & Growth.

The Committee received a report of the Executive Director for Innovation and Growth presenting the impact of the City of London Corporation’s work in support of UK-based Financial and Professional Services between July 2025 and September 2025 and providing Members with visibility of the outcomes of workstreams in the last quarter in the Innovation and Growth Department, working in close collaboration with Corporate Affairs, Media, the Remembrancer’s Office, the Office of the Policy Chairman and Mansion House.

The Executive Director spoke to highlight some of the key points within the report. He highlighted that the work that his department had been focusing on had emerged from the Vision for Economic Growth document and that this Summer’s Mansion House speech had drawn out a number of the areas that had been announced and delivered in partnership with government over the past few years. Such areas of work included the Investment Hub, further work around the Mansion House Accord, the Employers Pension Pledge, FinTech scale up and a Skills Compact with a particular focus on AI.

Speaking further on the Investment Hub, it was highlighted that this would be a public/private partnership, looking to ensure not only resource from government but also the presence of regulators and legal firms/consultancies in order to target the correct kind of investment and ensure a seamless, professional and globally competitive process for those seeking to invest here. This would be formally launched imminently and office space within the Guildhall had now been made for the staff supporting this service.

The Chair suggested that there would be benefit in inviting the new Investment Hub leadership team to attend a future meeting of this Committee following its launch.

An Alderman queried progress around recruitment for a Managing Director for the US Office. The Executive Director reported that a Member-led recruitment process was already underway and it was hoped that a final appointment would be made in the coming months.

Another Alderman spoke on the Mansion House Compact and the Mansion House Accord and queried what further engagement around these was planned for the new Lady Mayor and others. The Executive Director reported that they were monitoring from a baseline alongside the ABI to review progress and that the second update on the Compact was due to be published in a few weeks’ time. Close work was also being undertaken alongside Government, particularly on pension funds. A whole programme of work with the British Business Bank was also planned around bringing together institutional investors with various opportunities. It was reported that the incoming Lady Mayor was keen to push this further and faster.

The Deputy Chairman spoke on Sustainable Finance and asked the Director to comment further on this. The Director commented that the level of ambition and flow of capital in this space was very high. He spoke on the Transition Finance Council, a service which I&G provided the secretariat for and reported that they had been working at pace to put in place a series of building blocks to provide an indication of what the framework in this space should look like. This important policy work would ensure that the UK and the City could benefit from this from the outset.

In response to a question, Officers stated that they were soon set to review the Competitiveness Strategy

The Chairman spoke on the importance of the strategic communications around this work. The Director agreed on this point and underlined that more work was being done in this respect.

RESOLVED: - That Members note the update on key pieces of work that have taken place between July 2025 and September 2025, and their outputs