22. 25-11-20 Lord Mayor’s Annual Address

Today the Lord Mayor Alderman William Russell gave the annual address to the livery. The event began with an introduction by Barbara Russell, Chairman of the Livery Committee. The committee was formed in 1864 originally created with the purpose of organising and overseeing the elections of the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs at Common Hall. 150 years later, the Committee still fulfils this role whilst becoming the forum of communication between the livery and the officers at Guildhall and Mansion House. She explained that the Livery Committee was also responsible for training courses and had recently worked on a Diversity Charter signed by 36 livery companies. The committee has no budget and had relied on donations from livery companies to fund the recently commissioned Livery Committee website.

This was followed by the Lord Mayor’s address. The Lord Mayor started by praising the community support given by livery companies during the pandemic quoting 3 key initiatives – “The Livery Kitchen Initiative” supported by 44 companies, “Securing Future Prosperity” lead by the Management Consultants, and “No Going Back” organised by the Pan Livery Committee to support prisoners on release. He mentioned how he was launching the Recovery Task Force with key actions to ensure the City recovers from the pandemic and the “London Recharged Report” to retain innovation and maintain business eco systems. He also mentioned that he had recently hosted the “Green Horizon Summit” with over 90 countries taking part. Finally, he announced his theme for his second year of office “Global UK – The New Future” which would champion innovation, encourage opportunities for trade and continue to support culture.

The third speech was by the Town Clerk, John Barradell, who spoke about recently commissioned a review of the governance of the City headed by Lord Lisvane. The report issued last year contains more than 90 recommendations, including increasing diversity and reducing the number of committees. He also mentioned the Target Operating Model which will simplify how the City of London Corporation works.

The event ended with a question and answer session in which the Lord Mayor was asked how travel restrictions had affected his role as a global ambassador. The Lord Mayor replied that he had visited more countries virtually than he could have done physically but he was looking forward to many trips next year to re-establish personal relationships.