It has been my great honour to serve my local community as an elected representative continuously since 1999. In my 26 years of service - first as a member of Common Council, then as Alderman and then latterly as Sheriff and then Lord Mayor of London - a joyous part has been working with the remarkable communities that comprise London - our extraordinary Capital.  In order to celebrate these wonderful groups of people, during the course of my Shievalty and Mayoralty, I wanted to provide a structure where groups could work together to grow community ties among themselves and with London. 

As Sheriff, I was delighted to launch the City Belonging Project, with my colleague Ian Thomas CBE - the Town Clerk of the City of London Corporation. In order to promote the ideals behind the City Belonging Project, I organised and hosted a series of Communities and Faiths events at the Old Bailey.  I was deeply honoured to host exceptional people from the Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Chinese and Caribbean Heritage communities.  It is gratifying to see that, following this initiative,  a Black, African and Caribbean Heritage Communities event is now a regular fixture at the Old Bailey. 

As Lord Mayor, I wanted to turbocharge the impact of the City Belonging Project.  Working with Mark Gettleson of the City of London Corporation, he and I devised and launched a series of ground-breaking City Belonging Networks.  Using some of the lessons learned when I was Chair of IoD London Region (where I replaced the antiquated branch network with a series of impressive Special Interest Groups where members could curate their own experience - a programme that has been rolled out more broadly within the IoD), we gave rise to twelve City Belonging Networks, serving the following communities:

• City Muslim Network

• City Jewish Network

• Black/Caribbean Heritage in the Square Mile

• Latinos in the City 

• Women in the Square Mile 

• Social Mobility in the City

• Neurodiversity in the City

• City Mental Health Network

• Pride in the Square Mile 

• City South Asian Network 

• Disability in the City  

• Veterans in the Square Mile 

The City of London Corporation describes the City Belonging Networks as follows: 

 "Since its launch in summer 2023, the City Belonging Project has brought thousands of people together from across Square Mile workplaces to celebrate important events, share information and create a stronger sense of community in the City.

City Belonging Networks represent the next stage of that journey: ensuring that everyone who works in the Square Mile is able to be connected to their communities in a way that reaches across workplaces of different sectors and sizes. With more than 600,000 people working in the Square Mile and 1,000 workplaces with more than 100 staff, we are home to countless communities of identity, background, interest, experience, faith and more – which we will work to bring together.

These networks will be a channel for two-way communication and engagement between communities, the City of London Corporation and other institutions in the Square Mile, from the City Police to the Barbican Centre. They will put on events and activities to serve their community, as well as being a vehicle for consultation, and wider civic and democratic engagement.

As part of the City of London Corporation, we will support City Belonging Networks by helping to put together a steering group, securing events spaces, identifying potential sponsors and partners, maintaining mailing lists and ensuring that as many workplaces as possible nominate a representative to each. Where community networks already exist within the Square Mile, we will collaborate with them wherever possible, ensuring that City Belonging Networks support their work".

The following will give you a flavour of what has been achieved so far. I am immensely proud of these initiatives and will continue to work to grow them.