Latest news with #ChrisHayward
The Guardian
10 hours ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Smithfield and Billingsgate market redevelopment plans begin – but traders' future in doubt
Smithfield and Billingsgate food markets in London will be turned into new homes and a cultural destination under plans by their owner – but the future of the meat and fish traders housed on each site remains in doubt. A council within the City of London Corporation, which is responsible for running the capital's Square Mile, has voted to task a team to oversee the regeneration of 28 hectares (70 acres) of land across Greater London. However, it has not allocated any new money for the project. The corporation decided in a separate vote last November to permanently close Smithfield and Billingsgate when it pulled the plug on a planned £740m relocation to a new site in the east of the capital at Dagenham, blaming rising costs. The markets will continue trading in their current locations until 2028, but the closure will mark an end to centuries of meat and fish trading in the city. The corporation, which is exceptionally wealthy compared with typical UK local authorities, has faced a backlash over the decision and objections to the plans to permanently close London's ancient food markets and build on the sites. The corporation has previously offered compensation to Smithfield and Billingsgate traders and said it would help individual businesses to find new locations, but the newly created team will also be tasked with helping to find a new site for the meat and fish markets. Chris Hayward, the corporation's policy chair, said: 'A bright future lies ahead for these markets, and their redevelopment will contribute billions of pounds in economic growth, thousands of new jobs and thousands of new homes.' The redevelopment of the Smithfield and Billingsgate sites will add £9.1bn in gross value added (GVA) to the UK economy in the coming years, according to the corporation's calculations. The history of a food market around Smithfield – close to Farringdon train station – goes back more than 800 years. The London Museum is in the process of moving to part of the site. The corporation wants the new team, which will mostly include current corporation staff, to oversee a masterplan for the remainder of the site and its Victorian listed buildings, which will aim to turn it into a cultural hub, potentially housing bars, restaurants and venues. Greg Lawrence, the chair of traders at Smithfield market, who has worked on the site since he joined at the age of 16 in 1966, said: 'Smithfield market is a very special place. It will be emotional to leave the site, it has been people's lives.' Despite this, he is in favour of the markets moving to a new, modern location. 'We have outgrown it now, there is no room for anyone to expand or grow,' he said. The 5.6-hectare Billingsgate site close to the Canary Wharf financial district has been earmarked for housing, and the corporation believes 4,000 new homes could be built there. The corporation's new team, which will comprise 11 members, will also be responsible for working with local representatives to work out how to redevelop the 17-hectare site at Dagenham Dock, in one of London's most deprived boroughs, where it had intended to build a new market complex. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion The corporation spent just under £230m of the project's £741m cost before it cancelled the Dagenham move late last year, including buying and cleaning up the site. It blamed inflation and rising construction costs for the decision. It will use the remaining £511m to fund other major projects including a law court complex it is building for the Ministry of Justice at Salisbury Square, which the Guardian understands is over budget. The corporation manages assets worth billions of pounds, and collects £1.3bn in business rates annually, most of which it passes to central government. While the corporation is the owner and operator of the Smithfield and Billingsgate sites, it does not have the power to autonomously close them down and use the land for other purposes. The capital's ancient markets were established by acts of parliament and can only be shut when parliament passes a private bill. This process has been complicated by the objection of three fishmongers from Ridley Road market in east London, who say they depend on Billingsgate for their business and will go bust if it closes down. They say they have the support of a small group of MPs who are opposed to the closure. Alicia Weston, the founder of the food poverty charity Bags of Taste and a spokesperson for the fishmongers, said the new plans appeared to be 'a positive move towards what the fishmongers have always wanted. They have asked for a suitable replacement for Billingsgate to be up and running before the closure, so they can go and buy their fish every day.'
Time Magazine
20 hours ago
- Business
- Time Magazine
Climate Action Isn't Dead. It's Just Not Focused on the U.S.
Greetings from London. A week of interviews, events, and meetings—both on the record and behind closed-doors—at the city's Climate Action Week has left me with many reflections, but one stands out: the climate work goes on, but the U.S. is no longer at the center of the universe. That reality is evident almost just from the scale. The organizers tout 700 events and 45,000 participants spread across the sprawling London metropolis. This was the biggest London climate week yet, and the first time for many (myself included). But it was also evident in the meat of the conversations. Investors talked about opportunities outside the U.S., particularly in Asia and Europe. Climate focused executives waffled about how much of a presence they wanted to have at this year's iteration of New York Climate Week, usually an important moment on the climate calendar each September. And British officials emphasized their ability to serve as a global hub for sustainable finance. 'As investors look around the world and they look for places to put capital, I think we sit in a very good position because of what's happening geopolitically,' says Chris Hayward, policy chairman of City of London, the historic center of London, now best known as a financial hub. To get from event to event in London required dashing around the city in the quickest fashion: typically the tube subway system, consistently overheated given the unseasonably hot London temperatures. But the geographic center of the week was undeniably the City of London, the one square mile that hosts the country's premier banking and financial institutions. There's a reason for that: organizers in London see an economic opportunity in supporting the energy transition. And that's at the core of the global shift visible here in London. The companies that gathered this week have, for the most part, doubled down on efforts to make or save money with climate and sustainability initiatives—whether that's an industrial company cutting bills with energy efficiency or a financial firm creating new products to allow companies to invest in renewable power. The reality of this profit-oriented approach means the U.S. will fall behind given the policy uncertainty. The observation was underscored by data released throughout the week. A survey of business executives globally, released by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and Bain & Company to coincide with the event, found that large global companies are continuing to invest in green solutions—but are shifting those investments away from the U.S. toward Europe and Asia. Three quarters of surveyed companies said they were increasingly interested in focusing on those regions. Even still, that's not to say that climate work in the U.S. is dead. The report from WBCSD found that 50% of companies now have less interest in investing in climate work in the U.S. That's a striking figure when contrasted with the global picture. At the same time, it means a significant fraction of global companies continue to see potential. In background chats I had, many American business and financial sector leaders were quick to share that they continue to find opportunities to cut emissions in a way that saves them money—though several expressed fear that talking about it publicly could prompt scrutiny from the administration. 'Businesses are not giving up on the decarbonization journey,' says Peter Bakker, president and CEO of WBCSD, 'depending on where businesses are stationed, they are more or less willing to talk about it.' And I was surprised by the response to my informal, totally anecdotal poll about this year's New York Climate Week. In conversations, I asked sustainability executives how they planned to approach the gathering this year. While many said they had considered pulling out, the vast majority said that they have ultimately decided they still plan to show up—perhaps with a smaller footprint than in years past. The calibration of the message in New York this fall will be interesting, to say the least. In more than a decade on this beat, I have never felt more of a reluctance from business leaders to speak on the record. Many long standing sources preferred to talk without attribution, wary of the political consequences of speaking truthfully even while they eagerly highlighted their work to me. While that makes it more challenging to clearly tell the full story of what's happening, I suppose it's somewhat good news if your biggest concern is whether companies are still focused on capping emissions. To get this story in your inbox, subscribe to the TIME CO2 Leadership Report newsletter here.
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
London Seeks More Chinese Listings as City Battles IPO Drought
(Bloomberg) -- London is seeking to attract more Chinese firms to list on its stock exchange as the city struggles with a shrinking equity market and a deal drought across Europe. Security Concerns Hit Some of the World's 'Most Livable Cities' JFK AirTrain Cuts Fares 50% This Summer to Lure Riders Off Roads Taser-Maker Axon Triggers a NIMBY Backlash in its Hometown How E-Scooters Conquered (Most of) Europe NYC Congestion Toll Cuts Manhattan Gridlock by 25%, RPA Reports 'We need to get more IPOs happening in London,' Chris Hayward, policy chairman of the City of London Corp., said in an interview from Shanghai. 'We don't want to lose business across the Atlantic.' The authority for London's Square Mile financial district can provide opportunities for Chinese firms to secure customers and funding in the UK and drive them to list in the city via its connect scheme with Shanghai, Hayward said. The city can also encourage UK firms to raise capital and list on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, he said. China introduced its stock connect program with the UK in 2019, allowing listed companies to issue depository receipts on each other's exchanges. It later expanded the program to include Switzerland and Germany. Six years later, only a handful of Chinese firms, including Huatai Securities Co., have listed in London, raising a total $6.6 billion, and trading has been muted. Beijing and London vowed early this year to deepen economic and financial ties, promising efforts to boost the China-UK stock connect. 'You've got to proactively go out there and encourage listings on your exchange,' said Hayward, drawing lessons from Hong Kong's success in igniting a boom in initial public offerings in the first half of this year. Hayward, who was in Shanghai this week for China's annual financial Lujiazui forum, is traveling to Hong Kong later in the week for IPO discussions. Hong Kong's share-sale bonanza this year saw new listings and additional offerings fetch more than $27 billion as of early June. That eclipsed annual totals in the last three years, and is the most since records were reached in 2021, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The London bourse, on the other hand, has had just four pending or trading IPOs this year, as its valuation discount to the rest of the world discourages firms. London, as a key offshore yuan center, has also worked with China's central bank to help promote the internationalization of its currency. London established a working group with the People's Bank of China in 2018 to monitor the yuan market in the UK capital. The authority has been pushing global asset managers in the city to issue new products in yuan to facilitate greater use of the currency, said Hayward. He downplayed the potential impact that UK's recent tax for wealthy non-domiciled residents and its immigration crackdown could have on London's appeal as a global financial center, while urging efforts to resolve the non-dom issue. 'I would encourage the government to continue to review this matter,' he said. 'It's important to us to try and keep wealth creators in this country.' Ken Griffin on Trump, Harvard and Why Novice Investors Won't Beat the Pros Is Mark Cuban the Loudmouth Billionaire that Democrats Need for 2028? The US Has More Copper Than China But No Way to Refine All of It How a Tiny Middleman Could Access Two-Factor Login Codes From Tech Giants Can 'MAMUWT' Be to Musk What 'TACO' Is to Trump? ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Bloomberg
19-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
London Seeks More Chinese Listings as City Battles IPO Drought
London is seeking to attract more Chinese firms to list on its stock exchange as the city struggles with a shrinking equity market and a deal drought across Europe. 'We need to get more IPOs happening in London,' Chris Hayward, policy chairman of the City of London Corp., said in an interview from Shanghai. 'We don't want to lose business across the Atlantic.'
Yahoo
01-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
London's first public park reopens after upgrades
London's first public park has reopened after a decade largely spent as a building site for the construction of the Elizabeth line. Finsbury Circus Gardens has been the focus of a major transformation project by the City of London Corporation since 2023, with the Grade II listed site's lawn revitalised, seating improved and landscaping added. The largest open green space in the Square Mile has had 12 additional tree species, more than 13,000 plants and 6,000 bulbs added to its site to boost biodiversity. Chris Hayward, from the City of London Corporation, said the "tranquil" park was "revitalised and ready to be rediscovered". The gardens first became a public park known as "Moor Fields" in the 1600s. A formal layout was introduced by George Dance the Younger in 1815. For most of the past 10 years, Finsbury Circus Gardens has been closed to the public while it was used by Crossrail to build the nearby Liverpool Street Elizabeth line station. It was partially reopened on 6 May, with the official reopening due to take place on 4 June. Hayward said: "Our green spaces play a vital role in making the Square Mile a welcoming and attractive place to live, work, and visit – delivering on our vision for a more inclusive, innovative, and sustainable City." The corporation's natural environment board chairperson, James St John Davis, said the Square Mile's parks and gardens, which attract over 21 million visits a year "truly punch above their weight". He added: "They offer a vital escape from the bustle of daily life." Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to Deer spring back into London park after four years City of London Corporation
