To support vital relief efforts on the ground, the City Corporation has made a donation of £50,000 from its International Disasters Fund to the Turkey-Syria Earthquake Appeal launched today by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC). To donate to the appeal visit the DEC website.
An historic charity founded by an Elizabethan benefactor has given a six-figure funding boost to London’s vulnerable older people struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.
The Emanuel Hospital charity, set up in 1600 and administered by the City of London Corporation, has awarded a grant of £655,154 to Age UK to support thousands of older people across the capital.
The funding will go to 22 local Age UKs across London, who will use it to offer information and advice sessions on topics including claiming benefits, saving energy, eating well on a budget and avoiding scams.
It has been made available in acknowledgement of the increased demand on Age UK’s services caused by the cost-of-living crisis. The charity’s services provide a lifeline to vulnerable older people struggling to make ends meet amid rising costs.
Research shows that even before this year’s sharp increase in inflation, 15% of pensioners in the UK were in poverty, the equivalent of 1.7 million people[i].
Chairman of the City of London Corporation Emanuel Hospital Management Sub Committee Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli said:
We would like to take the opportunity to bring the date of the next in person City-wide Residents’ Meeting to your attention.
The resident event will be held on Wednesday, 11 January 2023, at Artizan Street Library, in the East of the City.
This event will be held over two sessions with the daytime slot taking place between 12:30 and 14:00 and then again in the evening between 18:15 and 19:45. The meeting will offer residents the chance to hear from the Policy Chairman, senior officers from the City of London Police and City of London Corporation. Residents will also have the opportunity to ask questions or raise issues about living in the City of London.
Due to the reduced seating capacity at Artizan street library invitations to attend in-person will be focused on residents. Residents who wish to attend are able to reserve their place via Eventbrite or by calling 020 3323176. Members from residential wards are asked to promote the event to residents.
This event will be livestreamed. The links to sessions are currently posted on our YouTube channel.
For more details, email residents@cityoflondon.gov.uk.
How to avoid falling victim to fraud – Prepare your business against cyber threats before the busy festive period!
• Identify common signs of fraudulent communications
• Spot the latest fraud trends
• Report and recover from an instance of fraud
The session is supported by the City of London’s Small Business Research + Enterprise Centre and brought to you by the Cyber Resilience Centre for London.
It’s coming up to Christmas, which is the peak season for scammers and fraudsters, and the sad reality is that very often businesses are sitting targets.
Each email, phone call and social media message you and your team respond to is another potential opportunity to fall victim to scams that peak in frequency and sophistication at this time of year.
Join this session to learn how to protect yourself, your business and your data with practical, actionable guidance from a cybersecurity expert.
Don’t forget to invite your staff to join too – this affects everyone!
To sign up visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/how-to-avoid-falling-victim-to-fraud-tickets-393085628697
Concilio Comms has recently launched a public consultation to gather further feedback on their project proposals for 9-11 Angel Court – https://9-11angelcourt.com/
Part of this consultation is a virtual webinar with Q&A on Tuesday, 26 July from 18:00 to 19:00, which you can register to join here.
Broad Street newsletter just out – Broad Street Ward News – 2022 June. Past editions here.
Calls for ideas on Austin Friars.
Your members are working hard with the City of London Corporation towards a net-zero emissions City by 2040. Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli asked the following question in Common Council on 19 May 2020:
My Lord Mayor.
May I join in the congratulations to Deputy Chris Hayward upon his appointment from the fine ward of Broad Street to Chairman of Policy & Resources. I trust that I speak for all honourable members when I applaud the Chairman of Policy & Resources, and his predecessors’, continuing work towards a sustainable City. As a reminder, the City’s modern green credentials are long-standing. Common Council passed the first UK clean air directive in 1953. After COP3 in Kyoto in 1997, the Corporation developed the EU Emissions Trading System. In 2002 the Corporation produced the “London Principles” framework for sustainable finance for the Johannesburg Earth Summit. In 2005 the City launched London Accord, a cooperative scheme to share investment research environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reports with policy makers, NGOs, and the general public. In 2006, the London Accord group posed the ‘stranded assets’ systemic financial stability question, garnering the support of the Bank of England. In 2007, Lord Mayor Sir David Lewis launched a 780 page report on the investability of climate projects. In 2009, the Corporation took a London Accord idea on policy performance bonds to the World Bank and COP15 in Copenhagen, garnering the support of the French government. Policy performance bonds link a bond’s interest rates to carbon emission targets. Such bonds are analogous to inflation linked bonds. The policy performance bond market, according to Bloomberg, was $11bn in 2020, $110bn in 2021, and projected to be $250bn this year. The big news this March is that the first sovereign policy performance bond of $2bn was issued by the government of Chile. Chile pays more interest on its bond if it fails to meet its 2030 emission and renewable energy targets.
Closer to home, in 2021 the City of London Corporation announced a net zero 2040 target for its combined £3bn investment portfolios, outlining a concrete action plan in response to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s ‘code red’ warning. The City is alive with green, in tune with our Lord Mayor’s national colours, the Green Finance Institute, Heart of the City SME training, the Livery Climate Action Group, sponsored by my fellow Alderman, Sheriff Alison Gowman, and much more.
My question though. 25 wards constitute the City of London. If we are to achieve our green goals with “action at the local level”, then every ward has to reduce emissions to zero in less than 18 years. Perhaps each ward should have its own ‘net zero 2040’ plan, call it “Get Zero”. Can the Corporation provide each ward with their current emissions and detail how each ward will progress to its net zero 2040 target? How can we make other cities green with envy of our Green Destination City ambitions?
My Lord Mayor.
And a supplementary:
My Lord Mayor.
May I thank the Chairman for his considered response. We all appreciate the complexity of targeting systems. Many would argue that price mechanisms for carbon emissions, as specified at COP 3 a quarter of a century ago, are the important path to follow. After a rocky start in 2005, over the past few years the EU emissions trading system has risen to solid levels forcing firms to cut back on their pollution. Since Brexit, the UK has its own emissions trading system functioning well with the EU’s. Both markets are approaching a price of €100 per tonne of emissions. Last year, China launched a national emissions trading system. By some estimates, 25% of global emissions are within credible cap-and-trade systems. These emissions trading systems are the right market approach for a market city. What is the Corporation doing to help promote the resurging carbon markets, especially as we were their midwife some two decades ago?
My Lord Mayor.
You can watch the exchange at Common Council here from 48:08 to 58:05.
Break out your orange partywear, and join us from 12:00 till 18:00 on Saturday, 30 April 2022 in Austin Friars by the Dutch Church.
The in-person City-wide Residents’ Meeting will be held on Wednesday, 4 May 2022 in the Great Hall, Guildhall. This event will be held over two sessions, with the daytime slot booked to take place between 12:30 – 14:30 and then again at 18:30 – 20:30. The meeting will offer residents the chance to hear from the Policy Chair, the Assistant Commissioner of the City of London Police and the Acting Deputy Town Clerk from the City of London Corporation. Residents will also have the opportunity to ask questions or raise issues about living in the City of London. For more details, email residents@cityoflondon.gov.uk.
The Heart of the City are delighted to be running the Lord Mayor’s Dragon Awards on behalf of the City of London Corporation for the second year. These awards celebrate excellence in social impact both within Greater London and nationally, for the Lord Mayor’s Award category. This year marks the Awards 34-year history, and we look forward to celebrating another year of responsible business.
The Heart of the City are actively encouraging both small and large businesses to submit applications to win one of six prestigious awards, so I’d really encourage you enter. The Dragon Awards are free to enter and culminate in an awards ceremony at the Mansion House in September.
You can apply here and also follow the Dragon Awards on Twitter for further updates.