A very good afternoon, to you all.
Welcome to the Westminster Property Association’s 37th Annual Lunch.
It’s a privilege to be able to bring together the leaders and organisations who shape the success of Westminster.
The opening video is a reminder of the real-world contribution our industry can have and how we can create opportunities for talented, young people like Fabiola.
I’m delighted to see she has joined us here today alongside some of her peers from our partners Young Westminster Foundation and 2-3 Degrees.
As part of WPA’s successful partnership with them, alongside many of you in the room today, more of Westminster’s young people are gaining access to careers in real estate.
This is a win-win for us all.
I’m pleased to welcome Lord Darroch as our keynote speaker…
Ambassador to the United States during President Trump’s first term, and a former National Security Advisor, Lord Darroch will be sharing his insights on the global political and economic shifts shaping the world and what it means for us here in London.
While the politics of the US continue to fascinate us, we face our own challenges, all of which have been exhaustively discussed as we approach the Chancellor’s second Budget.
However gloomy one side of the fiscal ledger may be, I take great comfort from the fact that London shines brightly on the other.
This is the world’s greatest city.
A global symbol of culture, commerce and creativity.
And when we get it right, the world takes notice.
As the government looks to drive growth across the country, it should be giving this city its full-throated support.
Central London is the driving force behind the UK economy, generating almost 10% of the country’s entire economic output.
And if central London is the engine of the nation’s economy, Westminster is what keeps it firing, generating nearly £100bn of economic output a year.
And for the first time, I can reveal our role in this. WPA members alone deliver around £3 billion in direct economic output every year, and almost £1 billion in annual tax contributions and business rates.
Beyond that, we contributed nearly £35 million in CIL contributions in Westminster over the last two years, enough to fund three new primary schools or up to 10 GP health centres.
Essential public services for London.
All of this is what we are accomplishing during a period of comparatively low planning consents, with major planning applications having dropped by 50% over the last 10 years.
Proposed changes to address the collapse in housing starts are welcome but the fact remains that it has never been more expensive, complex, or risky to develop in London.
This threatens an essential part of London’s global competitiveness – a functioning office market.
At a time when governments are increasingly looking inwards, we need to keep looking outwards.
Today’s employers are global. If London cannot provide the very best workplaces, companies will look elsewhere.
Businesses thrive when they’re close to their partners and clients.
When we create the best spaces for those connections to happen – for ideas to be exchanged and relationships to grow – we do more than build workplaces.
We secure the tax revenues that fund our public services, we attract the best global talent, and we drive the social vibrancy that makes this city so extraordinary and so important to the wider UK.
If you take one thing away from today, let it be this: creating exceptional office space is not just about buildings – it’s about unlocking the wider economic growth our country depends on.
The coming year will see us continue to advocate for real estate’s importance to London’s success and our contribution to the communities we operate in.
And as manifestos are drafted for local elections, I would urge policymakers to consider one thing.
You cannot have good growth, if there is no growth.
Enabling us to provide the spaces that keep London competitive is the most effective way to generate the CIL revenues that provide everything from tree planting to the Elizabeth line.
Too often, the link between development and these social benefits is overlooked or obscured.
Articulating this social contract is an essential part of how we keep London moving forward.
As is providing the flexibility for councils to use these resources as they see fit.
In partnership with the Leader of Westminster City Council, Cllr Adam Hug, we have urged Government to allow a proportion of CIL funds to be spent on affordable housing, helping to ease Westminster’s acute shortage of homes.
Regardless of what happens in May, challenges and opportunities lie ahead.
The Mayor’s new Development Corporation will be taking forward plans to pedestrianise Oxford Street, as part of ensuring one of London’s most iconic shopping and leisure districts can thrive well into the future.
The stakes are high and while I am not inclined to irrational bouts of optimism, history tells us that when significant forces pull together, incredible things can happen, and I’d urge everyone to be part of making this as successful as it possibly can be.
This spirit of collaboration is essential to the WPA’s activity.
I want to highlight the Sustainable City Charter as just one example of how important and transformative they can be. Run by Westminster City Council in partnership with WPA, the Sustainable City Charter has gone from a single mission to help support and encourage businesses to reduce their carbon footprint to an initiative which now spans almost half of all commercial floor space in Westminster, with signatories reporting dramatic decreases in energy intensity.
As all good policies do, it also spans politics, started by the previous Conservative administration, and taken forward by the current Labour one.
Before I conclude, I want to return to Fabiola and the young ambassadors from our charity partners. They are sat up here so do feel free to come over and speak to them later in the proceedings.
If you’re not already involved with Young Westminster Foundation and 2-3 Degrees, I would highly recommend you consider supporting their great work. I can speak first hand to the enrichment they can provide to your activities and wider organisation.
At WPA we are proud of our role in this, as well as many other initiatives in which we maximise the Association’s convening power and the knowledge and expertise of our members.
We couldn’t do any of this without the collective power of our Board, committees and support of our entire membership base.
Likewise, none of this could happen without support from Westminster Council, the GLA, central government, surrounding boroughs and countless other organisations and individuals. You know who you are!
In closing, I would like to thank the Board for their support and the WPA’s executive.
Particularly my predecessor as Chair, Marcus Geddes – who did so much to set this up and on whose coat tails I continue to ride.
Dan Nicholson, who does more work as Vice Chair than he probably ever expected…
And our CEO Charles Begley and all the executive team for tolerating our unreasonable demands and delivering such exceptional work.
Lastly and perhaps most importantly, if you would like to stay on after the lunch the hotel has once again provided access to the Rink Bar up on the balcony, which last year proved to be a roaring success by all accounts.
I hope you enjoy your lunch and have an enjoyable afternoon. And if you are here as a guest but not yet a member of the WPA, there’s further information on our work and joining instructions on the printed menu on the table. Thank you.
