The City of London has set its sights on becoming the world’s ‘most sustainable financial sector’, with ‘outstanding environments’ figuring as part of a ‘reimagined Square Mile for the new normal’.

Those were some of the key messages to emerge from City of London 2025 Vision, a webinar last week at which the City of London Corporation’s Chair of the Policy and Resources Committee, Catherine McGuinness, said she was ‘absolutely positive’ that London could prove its case as a very global city’.

McGuinness pointed to the fact that the Corporation has had continued strong interest from the investment and development community, having granted planning permission for schemes in the first two months of this year equivalent to 80% of all of last year’s. But McGuinness stressed again that reports that it was losing office space were wide of the mark. ‘We are a business City, and that is basically what we will remain’, she said. 

Giles French, External Affairs Director - Innovation & Growth at the City set out the vision’s broad thrusts – creating a ‘world-class business ecosystem, a vibrant offer and those outstanding environments to provide ‘world-class streets and public spaces’.

And he added that one of the key challenges in the coming months and years was perhaps about dealing with the differing pace and quantum of returns to the workplace. 

McGuinness said she believed that the pandemic will ‘undoubtedly’ leave its mark on the Square Mile for future generations, but that she was ‘very, very confident’ about the future of the Square Mile given its ability to recover throughout history. ‘But we don’t underestimate the scale of the challenge’. London will continue to be the world’s leading financial centre, she added. ‘We know from our conversations with businesses that they remain committed to central London, recognising the continued importance of the office, and bringing people together for innovating, for collaborating, and building organizational culture.’

It will be urging workers, residents, and visitors to show their support for city businesses through a series of reopening events, plus a London recovery campaign aimed at highlighting the Square Mile’s diversity and open spaces. ‘We really want the pandemic legacy to be one of reinforcing our existing strengths, but also reimagining the city for the new normal’, she said, ‘so that we really can come out better than ever and provide the city where people want to be tomorrow…Our ambitious mission is to ensure that the Square Mile is the world’s most innovative, inclusive and sustainable business ecosystem, and an attractive place to invest, work, live and visit’.

Other points made at the event included that the City aims to be net zero by 2040, ‘leading by example’, to have city-wide coverage of 5g by the end of next year and that it will be using anonymised data collection to improve its planning and policy developments. Other speakers included Elizabeth Hoyler, Engagement Manager, at Oliver Wyman, who stressed the important ‘practicality’ of what the City was doing with The Square Mile: Future City. ‘What’s different about this report is that it’s not so much a report as an action plan’, she said. ‘We’re not talking, we’re doing’.