On Wednesday 19th we welcomed members and stakeholders to our second ‘What Next for London?’ briefing, hosted by the University of Westminster. Guided by our Policy team, our new series shares insight into the inner workings of the capital as well as opportunities for members to get involved in our work.
Our Chief Executive, John Dickie, welcomed the crowd with a quickfire overview of the organisation and acknowledged the recent political events and the impact they will have on business, the capital and the UK. While it’s difficult to predict what will happen next in government affairs, he acknowledged London is a resilient city and will bounce back.
First to present was our Deputy Chief Executive Muniya Barua, who shared insight into our newly published Business Plan and our vision for London. While we continue to focus on our four key areas of people, place, connectivity and sustainability and help maintain London’s competitiveness, we know there are immediate threats that we must tackle. This includes the cost-of-living crisis, supporting businesses through volatile economic times and exploring London’s relationship with the UK and as a global city.
People
Next to speak was Mark Hilton, Director of People and Membership, who updated the audience on the current landscape of the labour market and immigration. Mark polled the audience on their current pace of recruitment and the extent of their skills gap. Results showed that Job vacancies and skills needs remain high despite recruitment slowing. Our London Skills Improvement Plan aims to tackle inequality among black and ethnic communities and bringing in a wide range of employers and educators together to ensure training matches the needs of London’s economy and local labour market needs, driving the capital’s recovery from the pandemic.
In our immigration work, we’re calling for an economically literate immigration system which is more helpful to businesses that need to meet skills and labour shortages, and educational institutions that want to recruit more international students. We now wait to understand the new Home Secretary, Grant Shapps’ views and we hope to work together to progress opportunities for business.
To find out more about our People work, click here or contact Mark Hilton.
Sustainability
Our second speaker, Ioanna Mytilinaiou shared an update on the capital’s attitudes to sustainability and how we are identifying the right steps to support London businesses in, not only committing, but delivering on their net zero targets and other climate change-related commitments.
Our upcoming streams of work include exploring the incentives, funding devices, regulatory change, and supply chain interventions to accelerate retro-fitting; looking into the interplay between city and business level targets and the actions required by both sides to accelerate the journey to net zero; and our most ambitious goal, establish a London-wide carbon offset fund which could invest back into projects that would benefit either London or the rest of the country.
To find out more about our Sustainability work, click here, or contact Ioanna Mytilinaiou
Place
Our third speaker, Jonathan Seager, Director of Place, gave an update on our Place Commission, delivered in partnership with Deloitte. The built environment is the backbone of the city and its economic success. Discussions so far have included people and spaces, sustainability and innovation. We will use these categories to produce a high-level report setting out recommendations in Spring 2023.
To find out more about our Place work, click here, or contact Jonathan Seager.
Events
Our final speaker, Elizabeth Forrester, Brand & Commercial Director, ran through our flagship events calendar and the opportunities available to work together. All our events are listed on our Events page.
Contact Elizabeth Forrester for more information.