LDN Weekly – Issue 260 – 22 March 2023 - Institutional denial?
INSTITUTIONAL DENIAL?
“The Casey Report – a personal perspective. I have just returned from MIPIM, the world property fair in Cannes. I first went there as Marketing Director of London First Centre (the inward investment agency, now part of London & Partners) in 1997."
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Robert Gordon Clark, LCA Partner & Senior Advisor We hope you enjoy this edition and if you don't already, do follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Linkedin. You can also visit our website for more information on LCA’s team, services, and clients. Oh and a technical note: If you like hearing from us, make sure to add ldn@londoncommunications.co.uk to your contacts or ‘safe sender’ list – this will help ensure our news bulletin lands in your inbox.  DAMNING, NO PRAISESo what did Baroness Casey’s review set out to do, what did it find and where to next? The review was commissioned by the Met itself (more precisely its previous Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick) in February 2022, following a series of high profile incidents of criminal behaviour and abuses by serving officers. They appointed Baroness Casey, a crossbench peer known for her rigour and candour, to lead the review. Casey had also led a separate investigation into the murder of Sarah Everard and indeed this is only the latest in a series of investigations into the Met in recent years, albeit the most holistic. This one set out to examine “standards of behaviour and internal culture” and crucially, to “make recommendations on actions required.” Casey’s work has since revealed many more instances of racism, sexism, homophobia, bullying and abuse of power, as well as failures of both standing procedures and their enforcement within the service. Her findings (in full here) state that the service suffers from, among other things, “inadequate management” and “institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia.” She recommends “a complete overhaul and a new approach” that would be “on a par” with the transformation of Northern Ireland’s police force in the 1990s. Casey has not held back on her findings and recommendations in a series of interviews, from Sky News to LBC, but it is now for the Mayor, the Met, and the Home Office to decide whether – and if so, how – they will implement Casey’s advice. For her part, she has publicly stated her confidence in both Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley and Deputy Commissioner Lynne Owens. Sadiq Khan has said he “expect[s] all the recommendations to be implemented quickly and in full” but he does not have absolute power to guarantee this. Mark Rowley is less clear about his intentions, pointing to ongoing consultation on his draft Turnaround Plan and saying only that Casey’s report will “play a crucial role in shaping those ongoing conversations.” Home Secretary Suella Braverman was similarly ambiguous, but made sure to state that “primary and political accountability sits with the Mayor of London” and notably questioned Casey’s use of “institutional racism” as “not a helpful term to use” asserting that “it is an ambiguous, contested and politically charged term that is much misused.” CITY SHAKEN?The Casey review appears to have swept aside headlines on a potential banking crisis. Financial crises have a high degree of contagion but so far the spread of this one has largely been contained abroad, with US-based Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, and on Monday Signature bank all collapsing, while First Republic has been propped up only by the intervention of other financial institutions and the Federal Reserve. Over the weekend Swiss authorities oversaw Credit Suisse’s absorption by UBS, bluntly described by the latter as “an emergency rescue.” Stock markets seem to have stabilised after a few volatile sessions, assuaged by central banks’, regulators’ and governments’ fairly coordinated response. The coming days will show whether those actions (with more key decisions expected today) calm the waters for good. Here in London, it is Credit Suisse’s predicament that will cause the most immediate concerns, not least for its 5,000 employees in the city. These are mainly based in Canary Wharf, with the press observing that this will be a blow for Canary Wharf Group and their shareholders Qatar Investment Authority. Indeed, beyond financial services, London’s wider property industry – which depends heavily on banks, domestic and foreign, as both lenders and occupiers – is understandably worried about the crisis’ implications for access to capital and demand for commercial property. It is therefore doubly welcome that the City of London Corporation has joined forces with leading banks to “examine opportunities for the UK’s financial and professional services sector as well as identify areas of risk ahead” in a new joint initiative called Finance For Growth. LONDON PLANNING ROUNDUP
PEOPLE NEWS
 DLUHC LATESTThree more developers have signed up to the Government’s building safety remediation contract. London Square, Telford Homes and Ballymore are the latest to sign the contract while a further eight are yet to sign and could face future restrictions on their development activities (though Michael Gove has not announced the details of the relevant Responsible Actors Scheme, expected sometime this week). Meanwhile, junior minister Lee Rowley has announced that the Recovery Strategy Unit, the team set up by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) to investigate firms failing to carry out building safety work, has opened 19 inquiries. Elsewhere, DLUHC has launched a technical consultation on the proposed new Infrastructure Levy, which is intended to replace Section 106. Planning Resource has listed 24 ‘things you need to know’ about the levy, but there’s one that stood out for us: the levy, as proposed, would be introduced through a phased ‘test and learn’ process over ‘several years’ and just a ‘small number’ of local authorities will implement the levy in the first instance, before it is rolled out more widely. THE WEEK FOR SADIQIt’s certainly been a busy few days for the Mayor of London. Following last week’s Budget, Sadiq Khan has reportedly called for a meeting with the Chancellor and Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove to discuss further devolution to London after Hunt announced that Greater Manchester and the West Midlands will be granted ‘single settlement’ devolution deals, meaning that each authority will now receive a single funding settlement over the whole spending review period rather than being funded through several different streams. Separately, the Mayor also hosted the inaugural International Partnership for Healthy Cities Summit alongside Bloomberg Philanthropies, World Health Organization and Vital Strategies. The event brought together representatives from over 50 cities to discuss the ways in which noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and injuries can be tackled. The Mayor also penned an accompanying piece in the Evening Standard with former Mayor of New York Michael R. Bloomberg, saying that ‘city leaders are uniquely placed’ to tackle ‘largely preventable’ NCDs and pointed to his own initiatives including the restriction of adverts for unhealthy food and drink on the TfL, as well as the expansion of the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ). LONDON GOVERNMENT FINANCEWhilst – as we reported a couple of weeks ago – Croydon Council has finally agreed a budget, it is not out of the woods quite yet. In a carefully-worded written statement to Parliament, Levelling up minister Lee Rowley said that the Government is “minded” to intervene at Conservative-Led Croydon Council, largely pointing the finger at “historic problems” (read: the previous Labour administration) as the reason why his department is proposing an expanded “intervention package” led by the improvement and assurance panel already overseeing the Council’s efforts to steady its financial course. Meanwhile, the Government was not pulling any punches when – in response to a question by Conservative Cities of London and Westminster MP Nickie Aiken – the Prime Minister accused the “the now Labour-run Westminster Council” of putting its “own councillor's pay ahead of everything else” by approving “a staggering, eyewatering 45% pay increase.” As per coverage in the Evening Standard, the council's response essentially argues that Rishi Sunak’s allegations are rather… selective with the figures. Thankfully, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for London has risen above party politics in calling for more power and resources to be devolved to London’s local authorities. Hear, hear to that! LABOUR POLICY LATESTThe Labour Party is most definitely gearing up for the next General Election, which is most likely set to take place next year. Following the publication of the Casey Review, Party Leader Sir Keir Starmer and Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper held a press conference in which they said that a Labour government would ‘raise confidence’ in every police force, announcing measures to improve the vetting of aspiring officers and introduce specialist training. The Party will unveil their wider plans for policing and tackling crime tomorrow. At the weekend, The Observer covered the Party’s plans to emulate work done by the Democrats in the US through the Inflation Reduction Act which has heavily subsidised investment in green technologies such as electric vehicles, creating millions of new jobs. Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said that a Labour Government would start a new national wealth fund with £8bn of Government support and will focus on green industries in deprived areas, with specific regional targets for the creation of new jobs outside London and the South East. 
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