Advancing the UK’s Economy!
Financial and professional services play a crucial role in supporting the UK economy, contributing to millions of jobs and substantial tax revenue. This sector is integral to the UK’s global standing, offering significant economic benefits while driving innovation and sustainable practices. With a focus on enhancing economic growth, the industry continues to evolve, addressing challenges such as climate change and digital transformation. The industry’s commitment to sustainable finance and technological advancement positions it as a key player in shaping the future of global finance. The challenges and opportunities within this sector demand robust leadership and strategic vision to ensure sustained growth and adaptation to an evolving global environment.
Chris Hayward, the Policy Chairman, brings a distinct expertise and deep commitment to ensuring the sector’s ongoing success. With a dedication to cultivating growth and ensuring that the UK’s financial services remain robust, Chris is actively shaping the future of this critical industry. His approach to leadership is marked by a deep understanding of both the challenges and opportunities facing the sector. Chris’s focus on collaboration and strategic partnerships is driving meaningful progress in areas such as sustainable finance, digital transformation, and investment in high-growth sectors, which reflects his understanding of the industry’s needs and his ability to drive meaningful change.
The City of London Corporation, under Chris’s guidance, plays a significant role in financial and professional services. The Corporation is committed to promoting UK growth, supporting businesses, and driving economic initiatives that benefit the broader economy. Through various programs and partnerships, the City of London Corporation works to enhance the UK’s position as a leading global financial hub, nurturing innovation and sustainable practices across the industry. The Corporation’s efforts are aimed at ensuring long-term economic stability and growth, making it a pillar of the UK’s finance system.
Let’s explore Chris’s strategic leadership journey in the financial services:
Promoting UK Growth and Competitiveness
According to Chris, the financial and professional services sector supports 2.4 million jobs across the UK. The City of London Corporation plays a key role in growing the sector. Over the next decade, it will continue to promote UK growth and competitiveness. This will be achieved by forging even closer ties with businesses and regulators. The Lord Mayor and Chris will continue to meet financial dignitaries across the world as ambassadors for the UK’s financial and professional services sector.
The work already delivered is also expected to benefit the UK economy over the next decade. For example, the Mansion House Compact initiative is focused on improving pension returns for UK savers as well as providing the necessary capital to help UK businesses flourish. The Mansion House Compact requires its signatories, some of the UK’s largest pension providers, to commit 5% of their assets to unlisted equities by 2030 to unlock investment into high-growth companies. Taking this step alongside ongoing pension reforms aims to add an additional £75bn to the UK economy by 2030.
Key Objectives for Britain’s Economic Future
Working closely with over 300 partners from industry, policymakers, and regulators, the City of London Corporation has devised a package of reforms and initiatives to boost economic growth across the UK. This has been called the Vision for Economic Growth, and it is expected that this roadmap will add £225bn to the UK economy over the next decade.
The Vision for Economic Growth outlines five key objectives that would deliver growth across Britain. These measures include supporting conditions for growth, raising investment levels, becoming a digital-first economy, becoming a leader in sustainable finance, and developing a world-class UK knowledge and support hub to showcase the offer globally.
The City of London Corporation also stands ready to work with the new Labour Government in delivering on the important issues that matter, from boosting economic growth, creating more highly skilled jobs, and funding for public services, to tackling the climate crisis.
The City of London Corporation voices its views on key challenges facing the city, including tax, regulation, skills, and access to talent, and devises initiatives, reports, and leverages its extensive networks to advocate on the issues that arise from the challenges on behalf of the city.
Strengthening International Relationships
As ambassadors for the UK’s financial and professional services, the Lord Mayor and Chris frequently meet business leaders, policymakers, and financial dignitaries from across the world to advocate Britain as a place to do business. They discuss how to make the UK’s relationship with outside countries stronger and how to better shape the future of financial services policy.
The UK’s attractiveness speaks for itself: the London Stock Exchange recently regained its crown as the most valuable in Europe, and the most recent foreign direct investment report showed the UK gained the most financial and professional services investment across hubs globally.
Meanwhile, London is situated at the crossroads of Europe’s biggest financial and tech sectors, making it one of the globe’s foremost hubs for innovation. London has one of the world’s most exciting fintech sectors, while it was also recently ranked top for the quality of its green finance offer. This naturally makes the city appealing to highly skilled workers and top talent.
Ambition for World-Leading Excellence
At the City of London Corporation, the ambition is to be a world-leading organisation, a goal that Chris carries everywhere he works and in all his experience. Before joining the City of London Corporation, he spent over 30 years traveling the globe building his property management firm, growing a B2B facilitation business, and helping to expand London’s second largest airport, Gatwick, which now sees more than 30 million passengers per year.
Chris knows what it is like to be at the helm of small and large organizations, and it is why he has made it his mission to support firms of all sizes, from large multinationals to SMEs within the Square Mile.
This summer, he launched the City of London Corporation’s first Small and Medium Enterprise Strategy to encourage companies to start and grow their business in the Square Mile.
The city is already home to 21,000 SMEs, with the tech sector growing by 130 firms in the last year (5%). The SME Strategy outlines several key initiatives. It aims to enhance the visibility and accessibility of support for small businesses, unlock the city’s unparalleled networks, and develop a new support offer aimed at early-growth companies and under-represented groups. The commitment to small businesses is unwavering, and this strategy will ensure they have the support needed to thrive.
Enhancing Local Economy through Culture
Chris believes culture and heritage are of huge importance to the City of London Corporation. The Square Mile is rich in history, and building in the city has always been about preserving historic buildings, a renowned one being St. Paul’s Cathedral, as well as ensuring the city remains a leading financial district globally, as demonstrated by the newest and tallest city skyscraper, 22 Bishopsgate.
The City of London Corporation recently granted planning permission for a new cultural attraction at the former wartime shelter in Holborn. The new ‘Heritage Experience’ will provide exhibition spaces, space for cultural events, and an underground bar. The plans will also benefit wider society, with free visits to the experience for London schools, local jobs, and apprenticeship opportunities. This scheme itself is expected to generate £60m to £85m of extra footfall spending in the local area.
Continuing Success in Arts and Learning
As the primary sponsor of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, the City of London Corporation supports arts education and aims for specific outcomes. The City of London Corporation is a huge champion of the arts and is home to The Barbican Centre, a world-class art and learning organization showcasing all major art forms, including dance, film, music, theatre, and visual arts. The Barbican Centre is used for learning and will continue to be the home to both new and starting-out renowned performers, with hopes to see its success continue to grow.
Revitalising Underused Spaces for Global Appeal
Chris highlights The Barbican Centre will undergo a huge renewal as part of a multi-million-pound investment the City of London Corporation has made into the space to ensure it remains a global destination. The overhaul will include upgrading the building’s performance venues, bringing underused spaces back to life, and improving the digital technology in the buildings.
Identifying Opportunities and Addressing Barriers
The City of London Corporation is always in close contact with the Government, offering expertise and recommendations ahead of the budget, for instance. It is also regularly in touch with regulators and businesses to identify opportunities and address barriers to unlock growth.
The City of London Corporation also hosts regular banquets and events in collaboration with the Government, including an Easter Banquet with the foreign secretary and a Financial and Professional Services Dinner with the Chancellor.
Passion for Leadership and Positive Change
Chris has had a real passion for politics since his youth, and over the last thirty years, he has always sought out leadership roles that can make a positive difference in society, whether in politics, education, or charity.
He ran to become Policy Chairman because he wanted to make a difference for the people and businesses of the Square Mile. He came into office during the pandemic and knew there was a lot of work to be done to support the city’s recovery.
This is why he launched Destination City, an ambitious program to deliver a seven-day-a-week Square Mile that is a global magnet for businesses, residents, visitors, and workers.
It is great to see that come to fruition, with firms such as Deutsche Bank and Clifford Chance located on the Square Mile.
Chris also has a wider role as Policy Chairman to support the country and the Government with the challenges of today, with economic growth being the most crucial.
He believes the financial and professional services sector is vital to the UK’s economy, and to have the opportunity to promote the vital work this sector does on behalf of this country is one of his greatest privileges and a huge responsibility.
The sector alone supports over 2.4 million jobs across the country, and it contributed a record £110.2bn to the public purse in 2023. This is equivalent to 12.3% of total UK tax receipts, more than the UK government’s education budget or more than half the health budget.
Encouraging Climate Change Mitigation Strategies
Chris highlights the biggest challenge facing the City of London Corporation is climate change. The rapid change in climate and the difficulties that can arise as a result is something everyone needs to remain abreast of. The City of London Corporation has pledged to achieve net-zero carbon emissions in its own operations by 2027. It is also committing to be net zero across its investment and supply chain by 2040. Significant progress has been made, with annual carbon emissions cut by 31% and energy consumption reduced by 21% between 2018/2019 and 2021/2022.
In terms of what the financial service sector is doing, a report released alongside the Climate Policy Initiative in June showed that tracked UK financial institutions have almost tripled their investment into clean energy projects in just one year to $2.3bn in 2023. This report was launched as part of the climate event, the Net Zero Delivery Summit, an annual event that brings together financial and corporate leaders and sustainability experts to discuss further commitments the sector can make to ensure net zero targets are met.
The City of London Corporation will continue to host several climate events in the hope of encouraging others to make their own commitments to save the planet and to help others gain support in changing their business strategies to incorporate climate-change mitigation policies.
