By Lucy Kenningham
A year is a long time in the Square Mile. Extraordinarily, it is coming up to the end of the current Lord Mayor’s 12 months at the helm. Venture capital firms signing up to put their heft behind the Mansion House reforms, spearheaded by its incumbent Nicholas Lyons, is another success for a Lord Mayor who has made their mark in a most welcome way.
What has given Lyons the chance to do so is his leadership, and acknowledging the convening power of his role, one that is in some ways ceremonial but in others – as he has proven – bestows on one the chance to make a marked difference. Crucially, he has taken to the job like the business leader he is: identifying objectives, and guiding his activity and that of his team towards achieving them.
The Mansion House reforms – which are, in short, an effort to push more UK-based capital into the next generation of high-growth British businesses – will outlive this Lord Mayor’s tenure but it will be up to the Square Mile and political establishment to ensure they are driven forward, where both major political parties should be able to find consensus.
There are lessons in Lyons’s success for other leaders of our city. The ‘other’ Mayor and his opponent in next year’s electoral contest, Susan Hall, still seem locked in something of a phoney war, but it is highly likely that the race will become more personality than policy driven. That’s a shame.
And dare we say it, there are lessons for our political establishment. With a limited time in the role, the Lord Mayor defined his own vision of success. Rishi Sunak is yet to do so, and beyond a loosely-defined restoration of competence neither has Keir Starmer.
One criticism of our politics is that there aren’t enough business people engaged in it; it’s perhaps no surprise that an accomplished City veteran like Lyons has demonstrated an ability to getting things done.
