41. 29-01-21 Our City Is Made Of Water Webinar

Tonight, I attended a webinar hosted by the Worshipful Company of Charter Architects. Peter Murray, Chairman of the Temple Bar Trust, the Company’s charitable arm introduced the evening explaining how Temple Bar was being renovated to host future company events. This was followed by a short film produced by Chris Dyson, Renter Warden for the Chartered Architects called “This City Is Made Of Water”.

The film displayed the architectural features of many of the splendid water fountains within the City, gave details of their history and the architects responsible for the structures. The film included fountains from medieval London right up to those recently installed by the City of London Corporation as part of the Plastic Free City Campaign. This was followed by a lively question and answer session. My thanks to Chris and the Charter Architects for an entertaining and interesting webinar.

40. 28-01-21 Virtual Cocktails Evening

Tonight, I attended a very pleasant virtual cocktails evening, getting together with our members to enjoy a social evening. It was so nice to meet up with many of our members again, from all corners of the country.

Utilising the breakout facility in Zoom we split the meeting to groups of 4 to enable everyone to socialise and describe their cocktails to others in their group, remixing the groups throughout the evening to allow everyone to meet. There were some very interesting, colourful and unique cocktails on display including a Newport Concrete Jumble and a Cinnamon Crunch.

Special thanks to Past Master Simon Catford who yet again managed the zoom technology for us. Despite being constrained to a virtual meeting by the current pandemic we all still managed to have a lot of fun and it was a most worthwhile and enjoyable evening.

39. 26-01-21 Climate Action Livery Seminar

It was an honour to be asked to present at tonight’s Climate Action Livery Seminar, on behalf of the Water Conservators Company and representing our trade. The event was led by Alderman Alison Gowman and hosted by the Engineers Company. Professor Gordon Masterton, Master of the Engineers Company introduced the evening and Alderman Alison Gowman then gave a key note speech. This was followed by 4 presentations to demonstrate both climate action activities undertaken to date by livery companies and potential areas for future focus.

John Clink, Clerk to the Merchant Taylors talked about work he was undertaking at the Merchant Taylors Hall to make the company more energy efficient, and then Alderman Robert Hughes-Penney, Past Master of the Guild of Investment Managers spoke about the need to ensure that livery company investment portfolios were aligned with Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria. Anthony Bickmore of the Wax Chandler’s Company introduced the Citizen Science project designed to enable schools to get involved with increased biodiversity and helping to pollinate London.

Finally, I spoke about how climate change may impact on the water sector and how that links with the City’s Climate Action Strategy. For the water sector actions fall into 2 areas, firstly, in achieving net zero emissions through increased energy efficiency and use of renewable energy sources such as biogas and solar panels. Secondly, in providing resilience to climate change through increased flood protection, Sustainable Urban Drainage Schemes (SUDS), and water efficiency. As an example of work to date I spoke about our part in the City of London’s Plastic Free City Campaign, in particular the need to reduce the use of plastic water bottles, which have a high carbon footprint, with the introduction of 10 new fountains in the City and support for the refill campaign.

After a question and answer session, attendees were then split into breakout rooms to discuss various aspects of the Climate Action Strategy. There were over 200 attendees at the event representing over 50 livery companies. I was really pleased to see that 19 Water Conservators attended the event, the third highest of the companies represented, a splendid achievement for our membership size.

 

38. 15-01-21 Masters 20/21 January Meeting

Tonight, I attended the second of a series of virtual Masters 20/21 meetings via zoom designed as an opportunity to engage with the Masters from other Livery Companies as it was not possible meet up physically during the current restrictions. It also enables Masters to see how other livery companies were faring with the significant constraints imposed by the current social restrictions and exchange ideas.

On this occasion we were honoured to have The Rt Hon The Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alderman William Russell present to give a welcoming address. He spoke about a reopening campaign as the City comes out of lockdown hopefully starting with the United Guilds Service in May and culminating with a fantastic Lord Mayor’s Show in November.

The evening continued with a mixture of break-out sessions, enabling Masters to socialise, and speeches. Colonel Richard Winstanley, OBE, Clerk of the Drapers Company updated everyone on the refurbishment of Drapers Hall during the pandemic which has been closed since last March. He spoke about the measures taken to protect staff and how they had taken the opportunity to stream live concerts from the hall and promote filmed events and a virtual tour. £400k had been raised by the livery for the Livery Kitchens Initiative during the pandemic. Mark Grove of the Cook and Butler spoke about the impact of the pandemic on the hospitality sector and the urgent need to get the City working again, with Livery companies taking the lead.

It was a very friendly and informal get together but also useful in terms of keeping in touch with other livery companies during these difficult times.

37. 13-01-21 WCWC Webinar – Achieving Demand Reduction Goals

It was a great pleasure to host the 8^th in our series of Water Conservators webinars titled “Achieving Demand Reduction Goals”. Andrew Tucker, Demand Reduction Strategy Manager at Thames Water gave a fascinating presentation about some of the amazing information that has come out of the smart metering data so far which is revolutionizing thinking about previous domestic water consumption assumptions and leakage.

He began by illustrating how the household demand peaks during the 1^st Covid lockdown exceed those during the previous record hot summer of 2018, and that household demand has remained above normal levels throughout the pandemic. He then demonstrated how smart metering data has fundamentally changed our understanding of water usage, internal wastage & leakage. Usage and plumbing loss (wastage) is much higher than previously thought and approximately 9% of unmeasured household water consumption is wastage. A graph of number of households versus Per Capita Consumption (PCC) showed the average PCC of 147 l/h/d was significantly influenced by a small number of excessive high users and that the majority of households used around 100 l/h/d.

Andrew then went on to show that dual flush toilets were a significant source of internal wastage and around 5% of domestic properties and 29% of businesses had leaking toilets. He finished by stressing that the largest future potential water saving interventions, such as water labelling and fittings regulation were not under water company control but needed legislation, hopefully in the government’s proposed Environment Bill next year.

The webinar concluded with a lively question and answer session. Around 100 people attended the event, a record so far.

36. 07-01-21 Climate Action Livery Seminar Briefing

Today I attended the briefing session for Climate Action Livery Seminar planned for 26^th January 2021. The City Corporation has recently committed to a Climate Action Strategy that sets a target to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2040 in respect of all activities at the same time as building a more resilient City, able to weather flood and climate risk. The City of London Corporation seeks to ensure that all occupiers, residents, businesses and organisations within the Square Mile are taking relevant steps, whether by regulation or volunteered.

Livery Companies have already started to think about how climate change might impact upon them. Some have a Hall or investment properties that will need significant changes to minimise greenhouse gas emissions or enhance carbon capture; others have carried out ethical reviews of their financial investments. The way that Liveries treat issues such as travel, plastics, water, energy or sustainable food is being widely championed and many trades and professions that Liveries represent are at the forefront of innovation and change driven by the avoidance or mitigation of the risks of climate change.

The seminar on the 26^th January will led by Alderman Alison Gowman who hosted a briefing today for those giving presentations and leading break-out sessions. I have been invited to give a short presentation at the start of the seminar. For those Water Conservator members who wish to register for the seminar, details are contained in the Livery Briefing circulated to members on 21^st December 2020.

35. 06-01-21 Minister For Hospitality

This afternoon I attended a virtual event organised by the Worshipful Company of Entrepreneurs and the Central London Alliance to petition for a minister for the hospitality sector. The session was hosted by Jon Hammond who interviewed a panel of experts from the sector including  Kate Nicholls, OBE - CEO, UK Hospitality, Cyrus Todiwala OBE, DL, proprietor of Café Spice Namasté and a celebrity television chef, Pervin Todiwala, who is at the centre of one of the most dynamic and enduring family businesses in the UK’s £3 billion Asian cuisine industry, Tony Matharu, founder and Chairman of Integrity International Group and a former "Hotelier of the Year",  Andrew Richardson, managing director of Home House Collection which features London's most exclusive private members' club and Claire Bosi of Chef and Restaurant magazine.

Kate Nichols started the discussions by explaining that the hospitality sector has an annual activity of around £139 billion, roughly the size of the defence budget, is the third largest employer in the UK, and the third largest exporter with around 39% of income from foreign visitors. £1 in every £3 spent goes back as revenue to the Chancellor raising around £40 billion in tax revenues. Until recently the sector was represented by 5 trade associations but these have now been rolled into one. Currently the sector interacts with 3 ministers which makes bringing together a coordinated approach more difficult. Kate pointed out the importance of a single minister with a team of civil servants behind him to galvanise support.

Claire Bosi first raised the petition for a single “Minister for Hospitality” in October 2020 which now has over 190,000 signatures. She pointed out that UK hospitality was now respected around the world, and the sector needs investment to attract tourists back to the UK after the pandemic. The debate in Parliament for a minister will take place at 4.30pm on 11^th January 2021.

The other speakers drew attention to the importance of the hospitality sector in terms of either short or long term career opportunities, and the diversity of those employed in the sector. Hospitality will be key to stimulating new businesses as part of the recovery after the pandemic.

The importance of the hospitality sector both to City businesses and the livery movement was underlined and those wishing to join me in supporting the petition for a “Minister for Hospitality” should click on the link below.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/552201