ALDERMAN IAN LUDER, LORD MAYOR OF THE CITY OF LONDON 2008/2009
Ladies and Gentlemen
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I am delighted to be here for this City Management Course, and many thanks
to Nigel Pullman for organising.
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First, may I start by explaining the difference between the Lord Mayor of
London and the Mayor of London, Boris. Both are elected democratically. In simple
terms the Lord Mayor is the LM of the City, the Square Mile, which has its own
budget and over which the Mayor has no power other than in respect of transport
issues. The LM is not paid a penny and holds office for 12 months; there are no
party politics in the City so he is independent and not bound by party affiliations.
The Mayor on the other hand who looks after Greater London outside the City is a
paid politician. The Lord Mayor is the Head of the City of London Corporation, the
local authority for the City, but he also has a national role as the ambassador for all
UK based financial and professional services and in that capacity travels abroad for
about 90 days per year to more than 20 countries - with top level business people
and with the rank of a Cabinet Minister.
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History of my office. For well over 800 years the citizens of London have
elected a Lord Mayor and this right is enshrined in a statute passed in the year of
the Magna Carta 1215. There has been one woman Lord Mayor to date - Dame
Mary Donaldson in 1983-4, and we hope there will soon be more.
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The Lord Mayor takes office on the second Saturday in November each year
for 12 months. On that day, Lord Mayor’s Day, the Lord Mayor also has the Lord
Mayor’s Show which is watched by some 500,000 people on the streets of London
and a further 3 million on television. On the following Monday the Lord Mayor
hosts the Lord Mayor’s Banquet in Guildhall for 750 guests and the speakers
include the Prime Minister, the Lord Chancellor and the Archbishop of Canterbury.
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Most people think I spend my time dressing up and eating dinners; that is a
very small proportion of my time in practice.
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The LM’s principal role today is Ambassador for all UK based financial and
professional services promoting “the City” brand name as the world’s leading
international financial and business centre and the best choice for business. That
takes in London - but also the other financial services Cities in the UK, from Leeds
to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cardiff and Manchester. The Lord Mayor is the LM of an
international, not a purely domestic, City representing everyone who works here
irrespective of nationality or origin; he is unique in this role.
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And despite the financial crisis, and despite what you've read in the
newspapers, the City is still in the premier league of international financial centres,
and we are slowly emerging from recession. Indeed, recent reports - both the
Global Financial Centres Index 5 and Mastercard Worldwide Centres of Commerce
suggest it is number one, marginally ahead of New York. [1] <outbind://28/#_ftn1>
Now I believe that financial services will form a very significant part of our economy
well into the future; at the last count, financial services accounted for 14.5% of
GDP,[2] <outbind://28/#_ftn2> contributed over £25 bn to the UK trade surplus and
25% to the UK Treasury’s corporate tax take; and employed over a million people.
Those are significant figures.
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During the banking crisis, other industries in the City continued to flourish.
Insurance, for example, sharia compliant finance, carbon emissions trading, asset
management - and lawyers and accountants drafted in for essential restructuring
work.
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Tomorrow I will be speaking at the City Banquet at Mansion House, alongside
Lord Turner, the Chairman of the Financial Services Authority - and the same day,
the new Global Financial Centres Index 6 will be published - and some of you may
be on tenterhooks to find out whether we are still ranked number one.
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In fact, as a numbers man, I'm not really interested in being number one whatever marginal advantages that may bring. I'm interested in market share. In the
future, I believe financial services will continue to grow globally - to accommodate a
fast developing world - millions of people in India and in China for example will need
more financial services. In the long term the cake is getting bigger, and what
matters for the UK and for London is to be in the first division with the other major
international and regional financial centres. After all, 20% of 100 is more than 30%
of 50.
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Why does so much research rank us as a top rated global financial centre and
the best place to do business?
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Our cluster of highly skilled people in different professions and support
services who want to work here and are appointed purely on merit; People and
skills are the most important factors in competitiveness.
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Openness of our markets to overseas investors - we have a level playing field
and we have attracted many sovereign wealth funds
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our belief in free trade and competition
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our stable political system with HMG promoting a business friendly
environment (well, most of the time)
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our ability to be flexible and to adjust quickly to change
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our consistent, politically neutral legal system based on English common law
with an independent judiciary highly regarded and trusted all over the world
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Welcoming and cosmopolitan with over 300 languages spoken
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English is the lead language of global business
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Time zone between NY and Tokyo
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Market access to EU market of 500 million people and customers - and
London usually ranks top in FDI surveys of the most business friendly markets in
the EU; but London is also the gateway to the global economy and some
companies use it to access the Middle East and North Africa - and beyond.
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But there are also risks -
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First, of course, the recovery is starting, and we run the risk of complacency.
Perhaps we don't need to make changes after all? We do, of course, if we are to
ward off future systemic crises.
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Second, over-regulation. There is a particular risk from Europe on this front.
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Third, skilled people: new rules on immigration mean that skilled people from
other countries may not be able to come to work here. That will result in a
catastrophic loss of expertise.
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Tax: we need to stop the government taxing business until it moves overseas:
we may rank well among other G8 countries, but our corporation tax rate is nearly
double the Irish rate of 14%.
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Apart from this financial services role, the Lord Mayor also has a local
authority role as Head of the City of London Corporation which provides local
government services for the Square Mile. It is a unique local authority because we
only have 9,000 residents but over 330,000 workers who commute here daily.
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The Lord Mayor chairs the Court of Aldermen and the Court of Common
Council. The committees are extremely well run by individual Chairmen and very
professional officers. I work closely with the Chairman of Policy, Stuart Fraser who's also unpaid and puts in the hours over four years, and like the Lord Mayor
supports financial services and the civic city!
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We have our own Police force, schools, housing projects, social services,
environmental street cleaning and refuse collection; we run the Central Criminal
Court at the Old Bailey (where I lived last year as the Sheriff), we run the Guildhall
School of Music, the Barbican, we fund half of the Museum of London, and we are
responsible for the 5 Thames bridges, and the 3 wholesale markets at Billingsgate,
Spitalfields and Smithfield. We are proud of all these. And we have a close
relationship with the 108 London Livery Companies.
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We also own and manage over 10,000 acres of land outside the City including
Hampstead Heath and Epping Forest. We run the Animal Reception Centre at
Heathrow Airport and we are the Port Health Authority for 93 miles of the Thames
from the North Sea Estuary up to Berkshire.
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We are the oldest municipal local authority in the world and the only one
operated on a non party political basis. Like the Lord Mayor, all the Aldermen and
Common Councilmen are independents and are not paid any expenses and do
their public duties entirely free of charge ( the only local authority in the world where
this applies we believe)
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The LM and the City of London Corporation also work closely with
neighbouring boroughs in London helping them with urban regeneration projects,
housing partnerships, promoting City employers to get involved in local schools and
employee volunteering, CSR and the Dragon Awards . We also sponsor seven
specialist schools and three City Academies. But it is not just us - the Livery
Companies of London too give away some £41m a year, - and the business City
gives away several hundred million.
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The LM has his own charities during his year, too; the Appeal; this year mine
are the sporting charity the Lords Taveners and St John Ambulance. I'd encourage
you all to assist my Appeal this year and buy the new City of London board game
for Christmas - available at www.lordmayorsappeal.org.uk or direct from the
Guildhall shop - which allows you to learn how to become Lord Mayor in an hour and tests your knowledge of the City of London. Given that it took me ten years, I
think it's great value. The last two Appeal events are coming up in October - a
Ladies' dinner at Gibson Hall and a Gentlemen of Sport dinner: you are warmly
invited.
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The LM has some other duties such as Chief Magistrate of the City,
Chancellor of the City University, Admiral of the Port of London Authority, Chairman
of the City Lieutenancy ( ie the Lord Lieutenant of the City) and Patron of
numerous charities.
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And this year, I have taken a special interest in Financial Literacy, encouraging
the Livery and City businesses to spend just a few hours teaching people about
basic finance - how to run a budget, what a good rate is on a loan - in schools. I
believe this is tremendously important, and anyone who is interested in getting
involved - it's a pretty minor commitment, but rewarding, - should give me their card
today.
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Thank you.