Bloomberg Talks
00:05:11 · Tiwa Adebayo, Ian Thomas
[00:05:11] S1: But of course, this question about the attractiveness of the City of London is not just exclusive to people and to talent. There are also questions about the exodus of UK listed companies and also foreign takeovers of British firms as an economic threat. We've heard Dame Julia Hoggett, CEO of the London Stock Exchange Group, calling this a national security issue. Do you agree with those concerns? [00:05:36] S0: Well, for me, there are always challenges and kind of headwinds no matter which jurisdiction that you're operating in. You know, we've got a very solid insurance sector, as an example. So, you know, a third of our FPS is insurance. And we've seen investment into the square mile with State Street coming in, HSBC coming back in here, Clifford Chance, et cetera. So, you know, I'm a bit more optimistic. But I tend to have an optimistic perspective on matters anyway, which speaks to the award and what the award can do to raise the aspirations of many young people in this country. We have a million young people not in education, employment and training in this country. So I think they need to see. role models in rooms that they don't normally occupy. So I'm kind of veering towards the optimistic approach, if I may. The words of Helen Keller, if you don't have optimism, then nothing will be achieved.
00:05:36 · Ian Thomas, Caroline Hepker
[00:05:36] S0: Well, for me, there are always challenges and kind of headwinds no matter which jurisdiction that you're operating in. You know, we've got a very solid insurance sector, as an example. So, you know, a third of our FPS is insurance. And we've seen investment into the square mile with State Street coming in, HSBC coming back in here, Clifford Chance, et cetera. So, you know, I'm a bit more optimistic. But I tend to have an optimistic perspective on matters anyway, which speaks to the award and what the award can do to raise the aspirations of many young people in this country. We have a million young people not in education, employment and training in this country. So I think they need to see. role models in rooms that they don't normally occupy. So I'm kind of veering towards the optimistic approach, if I may. The words of Helen Keller, if you don't have optimism, then nothing will be achieved. [00:06:41] S2: Yeah, absolutely. I was interested by your point around devolution. Do you think that that actually might benefit the City of London? I mean, there's, again, on the kind of questioning side of things, the concern in some senses about devolution is that there will be money given to parts of the country in every postcode that maybe cannot, don't have the capacity to utilise it to deliver economic growth. I mean, one could argue that maybe the City of London is not one of those places. If devolution does mean more money, you know, what would you be able to do with it in terms of delivering more economic growth?
00:07:18 · Ian Thomas
[00:07:18] S0: Yeah, well, if you listen to people like our lady mayor, Dame Sue Langley, and our chairman, they talk up the city. You know, we are competing globally with other jurisdictions. And we're seeing the benefits in terms of the interest, you know, our vacancy rates are grade A office accommodation is just 1%. So there's lots to play for there. With regards to devolution, the economic spending power of the mayor will significantly increase with its share of income tax locally. The devolved budgets for 16 to 19 will help with that growth problem and support the supply chain of talent into the growth sectors across the country. So that will be really, really good. And I just see opportunities aplenty. One of the things that does worry me, if you want to talk about things that concern me, is around a disinvestment potentially or a threat potentially to our police and disinvestment. So we've got a, there's something called fairer funding, the government's fairer funding regime, which is about sort of the funding it provides to local authority areas. And we're seeing a huge cut potentially down the tracks. We've secured transitional agreement with the government, which is fantastic. We are grateful for that. But looking ahead to 3031, that looks very challenging if we don't retain that funding to continue to stimulate economic growth and further our police force. So the City of London has its own police force dates back to 1839. It secures the district. A safe district is a successful district. And myself and colleagues, our view is whilst police reform generally is welcomed, we understand the need for it. The distinction of having its city police force protecting a very, very busy area with a very busy daytime population here and growing is critical. And as well as that, our lead on tackling national fraud, which is a risk. to the business community of £ 6. 8 billion is something also that I'd want the government to think really careful about. And this is echoed by our leaders such as Dame Sue Langley and Christopher Hayward.
00:09:37 · Tiwa Adebayo, Ian Thomas, Caroline Hepker
[00:09:37] S1: And I do want to come back to the power list, of course, just to end. You have mentioned this idea of representation in the City of London, in boardrooms. Why do you think we are perhaps still seeing a lack of representation in in these key rooms and what can be done to address it? [00:09:57] S0: Yeah, if you look at what's happening with gender and with women, that's come a long way, but still nowhere near where it needs to be. And it's the same with race. And I mentor a lot of people, a lot of younger people, and can say there's no shortage of talent up and down the country What there is a shortage of, a paucity of, is fairness in selection processes, I would say. And I think that people like the City of London, who clearly have a chief executive who's a black man for the first time in 750 years or whatever it is, it's a signal that the city has resisted the kind of temptation to. Recruit in its own image in terms of some of those recruiters um or to replicate what's happened in the past without putting meritocracy first and my my my view on it is that if meritocracy was alive and well in this country then we wouldn't have a representation problem um all we all people like me want is fairness not favors so you know ensure processes are fair I appeal to recruiters to resist the temptation to recruit in their own image. [00:11:19] S2: Ian Thomas, thank you so much for being with us. Chief Executive of the City of London Corporation.