Bloomberg Talks
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.