Author: Tijs Broeke

London continues to hold the top spot for financial and professional services when compared with other major cities, a report by the City of London Corporation has found. The research, which took 91 different metrics for success into account, found that, while other major centres may lead on some measures, London and the UK have the strongest overall competitive offering.

Statues of two prominent figures in the City of London with links to the Transatlantic slave trade will be removed and re-sited, the City of London Corporation’s Policy and Resources Committee has decided. The move had been recommended by the City Corporation’s Tackling Racism Taskforce, and will be accompanied by measures aimed at boosting diversity in staffing, governance, education, business and policing.

As we are approaching the Christmas holidays the Ward of Cheap team would like to wish you, your family and loved ones a great Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

As the weather is turning, we are preparing to support homeless people during the cold winter months. COVID-19 has seen City of London resources deployed in different ways and has forced a change to the planning we would normally have in place at this time. As Deputy Chair of the City’s Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Committee I’ve stressed the importance of a pan-London approach.

The City of London Police has launched its new Sector Policing model, which will see new dedicated local Police Officers on the beat in the Ward of Cheap and around Cheapside. Together with my Ward colleague Cllr Nick Bensted-Smith, I have championed this new approach as a member of the police authority board, because we believe a more local approach to policing in the City will benefit our communities, residents, businesses and visitors.

Together with my fellow Ward colleagues we are asking residents and City workers what the priorities should be for the City of London in responding to Covid19. We would like to hear what matters most to you – click here to complete the survey.

Today a new COVID19 test centre has opened in the Ward of Cheap in Guildhall Yard, just off Gresham Street. The test centre will be open from 8am and 8pm, 7 days a week, for both residents and City workers.

A 100-year-old man from Bow in east London has been be awarded the Freedom of the City of London today after raising £420,000 to help people who have contracted, or been affected by, COVID-19 in the UK and Bangladesh.

“With the PM’s guidance to work from home, footfall on our high streets is also way down.” But fellow member of the Barbican Centre Board, Jenny Waldman, rightly emphasises in the Evening Standard that visiting museums can help. She references a report by Arts Council England revealing that 75% of buildings used by arts organisations are either on or within a 5-minute walk of a high street, adding that “culture is embedded in the high street, supporting local economies and community cohesion.”