Lord Mayor: my end of term report
The Mansion House Accord will be remembered as the showpiece of this mayoralty, but there is much else to be proud of, says Alastair King as his term draws to a close
In my speech at the annual City regulators’ dinner a fortnight ago, I promised not to assume the role of the schoolmaster – telling our guests that they were doing well but could be doing better. Now as I approach the time to pack my bags at Mansion House and hand over the keys to my successor, it is time to turn in my own report card for the year.
I committed from the start that mine would be a high-energy mayoralty. Looking back, I believe all the evidence points exactly to that. We have hosted State Visits by the Amir of Qatar and President Macron, as well as attending the State Banquet with President Trump. I organised a slew of fundraising events for charities and good causes, and visited 20 countries to beat the drum for British business. Just this morning I returned from the final visit of my mayoralty – one that encompassed Saudi Arabia (my third trip there in my term of office – a record), Indonesia and Bahrain (my second visit as Lord Mayor).
On those trips I have often been struck by the growing chasm between the downbeat perception we all too often have of ourselves and the work we do here in the City, and the deep respect, fondness and appreciation people all over the world have for both the Square Mile, and the United Kingdom as a whole.
We have so much to shout about. A world-class legal and regulatory framework; a talented, international workforce; a lingua franca that connects the business world; and a working day that overlaps with a staggering 99 per cent of global business activity. In total, British universities have educated a remarkable 58 serving world leaders – more than a quarter of Presidents and Prime Ministers in office today. We should never underestimate our soft power, our ability to convene, and the degree to which people look to us to lead and find solutions. I hope that I have managed, even in a small, modest way, to reinvigorate our erstwhile sense of mojo and self-belief.
More than anything, I hope we have begun to turn the dial on a question that sparked my entire mayoral theme: Growth Unleashed. That is how can we secure the capital we need to scale our brightest businesses, renew our infrastructure, and remain competitive in a fast-changing world? We are home to a £4.4 trillion pool of investment capital, yet too little is flowing into the sectors that matter most. In fact, a measly 0.007 per cent of pension fund assets under management in the UK and Ireland are invested into venture capital. That cannot be right – it has to change.
Reviving animal spirits
The initiatives I have managed to bring forward over the past year have been designed to reverse that trajectory and revive our animal spirits. Many of them I have written about in this publication before – the scale-up showcase series (seeking to attract investment into UK tech companies looking to raise capital in the region of between £5m to £30m), Scotland’s Global Investment Summit, the Global Family Office Summit, the Chief Risk Officers Summit and network, the Employer Pension Pledge, the defence financing roundtables and programme. With my wife, Florence, a serving Army Reservist, the work we have done to boost recognition of the Armed Forces Covenant has been a particular source of pride.
The Mansion House Accord – a commitment from 17 of the largest workplace pension providers with the potential to unlock £100bn of investment for infrastructure projects and high-growth businesses (with half of it invested here, in the UK), spearheaded by me – will be remembered as this mayoralty’s showpiece. It has been pleasing to see the enthusiasm it has already garnered, not just at home but from sovereign wealth funds and institutional investors around the world who are excited by the opportunities it presents to co-invest.
As I enter my final week, there will be no slowing down – I intend to sweat the asset until the last, not least through the launch of a Chief Risk Officer Network on Tuesday. Nor will I stop advocating that we remove barriers to investing in UK companies, which must be a priority of the upcoming Budget. Abolishing stamp duty on share trading would be one such measure.
If you want to insure against catastrophe, do it in London; if you want to raise debt or equity for your business, do it in London; and if you want to fall out with your partners, sue them in London!
I started this mayoralty saying that I would judge this year a success if, by the end, we could look each other in the eye and agree that the City is now firing on more cylinders than it was. I wholeheartedly believe that to be the case.
Please remember my mantra: if you want to insure against catastrophe, do it in London; if you want to raise debt or equity for your business, do it in London; and if you want to fall out with your partners, sue them in London!