Agenda item

Joint report of the City Surveyor and the Director of the Built Environment.

The Committee considered a joint report of the City Surveyor and the Director of the Built Environment informing Members of the City of London Corporation’s activities at the MIPIM property exhibition in March 2019 and seeking approval for City of London attendance at MIPIM 2020.

A Member highlighted that attendance at last year’s exhibition had been facilitated under budget. He spoke in support of the great opportunities that arose as a result of regularly attending the exhibition and was in strong support of the organisation’s continuing participation here.

Other Members echoed these sentiments and underlined that they felt that it was essential that the organisation continued to be represented at the event, particularly in the lead up to Brexit.

A Member highlighted that a large part of the organisation’s costs (approximately £50k) were associated with the City model and questioned whether this was still considered appropriate given that the City utilised 3D modelling which might be more interesting and cost effective to present going forward. Officers clarified that the figure mentioned was for the City model but also hire of the meeting room site for which the organisation received a 50% discount when compared with commercial rates.

Officers went on to report that funding had been received from various sources, including Innovate UK, to develop a virtual reality model of the whole of the City of London. This would be an 18 month programme but it was hoped that at least some of the work on this would be available as part of next year’s exhibit. Officers also clarified that the traditional City model was always a fantastic centrepoint for the City’s exhibition site and that this was always evolving with the addition of new model buildings where necessary.

A Member noted that it was no longer the case that the Director of the Built Environment was invited to attend and questioned why this decision had been made. Officers reported that this had been a decision of the Chair of Policy and Resources and the former Chairman of this Committee as they wanted to introduce a more strategic focus.

Another Member suggested that he felt that the report should contain better metrics on the effects of MIPIM going forward and the effects on the work of the Planning and Transportation Committee in particular. Officers underlined that the metrics were a difficult matter as the conversations held at MIPIM could often not come to fruition until 2-3 years later. Conversations also tended to take place between Members and investors and there could also be some reluctance around making these conversations public even though they did not relate to specific sites. Officers went on to report that the strategy employed this year had been to target foreign investors such as WeWork that the Corporation had not held conversations with previously.

A Member stated that it was evident from the City Corporation’s media coverage from MIPIM that the organisation was held up as a ‘model local authority. He suggested that attendees should therefore look to share their knowledge with others and seek to promote wider London/the UK asset, particularly as Brexit approached. Officers clarified that the work that the City Corporation did around MIPIM was with the ‘London stand’ and that they also worked collaboratively with organisations such as the GLA and London Councils wherever possible. This year’s programme engaged more widely in terms of both messaging and support.

A Member noted that there was a suggestion that money was saved by City of London attendees staying further away from the event site. She stated that she felt that this was a very short-sighted proposal given the benefits of staying in the appropriate hotels and the business that was often conducted here over breakfast for example. Officers accepted that the accommodation costs continued to escalate but underlined that convenience was very important given the extremely busy schedules of delegates.

The Chair thanked Officers for their work on what he felt was now a very well run operation. He added that it was also extremely useful to have the Chair of Policy and Resources present at MIPIM to help underline the strategic importance of this Committee’s work.

RESOLVED – That:

1.    The report on MIPIM 2019 is received; and

2.    The Planning and Transportation Committee approve that the City of London Corporation should attend MIPIM 2020 with a total budget of £92,000 to be funded via the Central Communications Director budget (£5,000), Planning & Transportation Committee budget (£11,250), the Property Investment Board (£21,750), and from the CPAT budget (£54,000).