REVEALED: City Corporation’s Corporate Plan will deliver “world-class” organisation
- City Corporation Policy Chairman pledges to continue Square Mile’s revitalisation as a destination and strengthen its contribution to Greater London.
- Its Vision for Economic Growth could unlock £225 billion in UK investment.
- New London Museum at Smithfield Market will become a leading cultural centre for the capital.
- Salisbury Square development will create new City of London Police HQ and a modern facility for HM Courts and Tribunals Service.
The City of London Corporation has unveiled its new Corporate Plan with six outcomes to guide its leadership at local, London-wide, national, and international levels.
The five-year plan, which takes effect from April, is designed to ensure the City Corporation focuses on its mission to be a world-class organisation that fully embraces the needs and diversity of the communities it serves.
The six outcomes are:
Diverse Engaged Communities
Across the City’s residents, workers, businesses, and visitors, everyone should feel that they belong. Connecting people of all ages and backgrounds will help build diverse, engaged communities that are involved in co-creating great services and outcomes.
Dynamic Economic Growth
The City of London is the engine in the country’s economy. Driving dynamic economic growth in financial and professional services at local, national, and international levels will create jobs, attract investment, and support businesses across communities and the country.
Leading Sustainable Environment
The City Corporation has a responsibility to ensure that it acts as a leader on environmental sustainability and strives to enhance it in all aspects of how it works. Climate action, resilience, air quality, and sustainability are all facets of ambitious targets for the entire City to be net zero by 2040.
Vibrant Thriving Destination
Attracting businesses and people to a safe, secure, and dynamic location is vital to the City’s future. A world-leading culture and leisure offer is integral to creating a vibrant, thriving destination where everyone prospers.
Providing Excellent Services
Supporting people to live healthy, independent lives and achieve their ambitions is dependent on excellent services. Vital to that continued pursuit is enabling access to effective adult and children’s social care, outstanding education, lifelong learning, quality housing, and combatting homelessness.
Flourishing Public Spaces
From its markets and cultural icons, such as the Barbican, to its world-famous bridges and amazing green spaces, the City Corporation is a steward of unique national assets. Major capital investment into our civic fabric will secure flourishing public spaces, enabling a more successful London overall.
In the plan, City Corporation Policy Chairman, Chris Hayward, pledged to continue the revitalisation of the Square Mile and strengthen the organisation’s role in Greater London, pressing forward with its Vision for Economic Growth to unlock a £225 billion investment to boost prosperity, create jobs, and help fund UK public services.
He said the City Corporation is partnering with the Greater London Authority to build a “new world-class London Museum” in the former Smithfield market buildings, creating leading cultural and learning experiences, and building an “international justice hub” and future City of London Police headquarters through a new development at Salisbury Square.
He said the City Corporation would work to promote and secure the Square Mile as a “magnetic place that attracts businesses and people alike, being a successful and safe area – a world-leading business district and leisure destination”, with thriving, seven-day-a-week retail, leisure, and business services.
City of London Corporation Policy Chairman, Chris Hayward, said:
“Over the next five years, this plan’s six outcomes will guide our leadership at local, London, national, and international levels and ultimately ensure everything we do
aligns to our mission to be world-class.
“Our work is diverse and wide ranging, from supporting the Square Mile as the engine of the UK economy and promoting the UK’s financial and professional services industry, to delivering high-quality public services, looking after our residents, and ensuring our open spaces continue to thrive for the benefit of all.
“Our Corporate Plan serves as a focus for what we do – it is a powerful tool to ensure we deliver on these aspirations.”
City of London Corporation Town Clerk and Chief Executive, Ian Thomas CBE, said:
“The City of London Corporation is a unique organisation. For 900 years, we’ve served as custodians of the nation’s trading centre, the beating heart of London.
“But the City is more than a business district, and we are more than guardians of history. We are convenors, facilitators, enablers, philanthropists, landlords, educators, environmentalists, and more.
“As the governing body of the Square Mile, we have responsibilities to residents, workers, businesses, visitors, and many more. Working in partnership with all our communities within and outside the City, we will shape a fantastic five years ahead, together.”
The City Corporation’s Corporate Plan was approved by its Policy and Resources Committee, and its Court of Common Council, the organisation’s main decision-making body, following an extensive engagement process. It will be supported by the City Corporation’s first People Strategy, which will help support its mission to be a world-class organisation.
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
The City Corporation is the governing body of the Square Mile dedicated to a vibrant and thriving City, supporting a diverse and sustainable London, within a globally successful UK.
The organisation has a unique role in being the local authority for the City of London, as well as promoting the UK financial and professional services industry at home and abroad, through international visits to key global markets by its Lord Mayor and its Policy Chairman.
Its Destination City programme has set out a vision to make the Square Mile a world-leading leisure destination, and the organisation is one of the largest funders of heritage and cultural activities in the UK, investing over £130m every year. It manages and supports a range of world-class cultural and heritage institutions for the public good, including the Barbican Centre, Tower Bridge, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Guildhall Art Gallery, and London Metropolitan Archives.
Through its Family of Schools, careers festivals, and skills programmes, the City Corporation helps to boost the education, skills and life-long learning for people of all ages.
It runs some of the country’s best public services, protecting 11,000 acres of green space, such as Epping Forest and Hampstead Heath, providing social housing on 12 estates across the capital, managing wholesale markets, and acting as the London Port Health Authority and the Animal Health Authority for Greater London.
The City Corporation plays a leading role in maintaining the Square Mile as the safest business district in the world through its Police Authority Board, which supports and scrutinises the work of the City of London Police, the National Lead Force for Fraud, and the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead for economic, cyber and business crime. It also owns and manages the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey), where some of the highest profile criminal trials in England and Wales are held.
It is the sole trustee of the City Bridge Foundation – which maintains five iconic London bridges, and awards charity grants of over £30 million a year to tackle disadvantage across the capital – and it has also made an extra £200 million available over five years from 2021 to 2026 to support London’s charity sector. The City Corporation also supports the City’s Livery Companies, which through their work on trade, skills, and education, contribute over £75m each year to charity.