News & Events

Upcoming Events

  • Achieving our Potential – Westminster as a World Class Destination for Business


    Launch of the new Westminster Investment Service

    We are launching the new Westminster Investment Service with the support of our Business Improvement Districts, London & Partners and the Westminster Property Association. Our event will explore Westminster’s assets as a world class business destination attracting and supporting high-growth business and helping entrepreneurs to scale.

    We invite businesses and partners to join our panel of experts online to explore what makes Westminster attractive as a business destination, and how our local eco-system shapes up in response to the future needs of business and sector trends, both locally and internationally, in order to respond to the needs of today’s and future business potential.

    How will this blend of iconic neighbourhoods, global cultural innovation and influence, outstanding retail and hospitality continue to shape future investment into Westminster?

    What collective competitive advantages will underpin and support our high growth business base, strengthen our sector clusters, engage with the tech of the future, and unlock creative new talent?

    Tickets/Booking:
    https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-panel-discussion-westminster-as-a-world-class-destination-for-business-tickets-155970103779

     

    All Westminster businesses, partners and supporting organisations are invited to join online.

    Panel Hosts

    Councillor Jonathan Glanz, Lord Mayor of Westminster
    Councillor Jonathan Glanz, Lord Mayor of Westminster

    The Right Worshipful Lord Mayor of Westminster, Councillor Jonathan Glanz, will open the discussion with reflections on Westminster’s international standing.

     

    Councillor Matthew Green, Westminster City Council

    Cabinet Member for Business, Licensing and Planning, Councillor Matthew Green, will present the new Westminster Investment Service, which will support existing and new business.

     

    Speakers on the Panel

    Allen Simpson, London & Partners

    Allen is currently Acting CEO at London & Partners, the business growth and destination agency for London. As Managing Director, he leads the organisations’ strategy, research and corporate affairs.

    Previously, Allen spent six years at Barclays Bank where he led the bank’s political strategy function, and acted as an adviser to the Chairman and wider senior leadership.

    He also led the bank’s business finance policy team, focusing on trade promotion, SMEs and scale-ups both in the UK and across the EU, including as Chair of the SME committee of the pan-European wholesale banking group AFME. Following the 2016 referendum, Allen led the organisation’s Brexit and global trade policy response.

    Henry Whorwood, Beauhurst

    Henry Whorwood leads Beauhurst’s Research & Consultancy team. He is an expert on business finance and has worked on briefs for clients including the British Business Bank, HM Treasury, BEIS and Innovate UK. Henry regularly gives presentations on market trends at events around the country. He studied Classics at the University of Oxford.

     

    Ute Stephan, King’s Business School

    Ute Stephan is full Professor of Entrepreneurship at King’s Business School at King’s College London, Transcampus Professor at Technische Universität Dresden (Psychology), Honorary Professor at UCL’s Department of Psychology and at Aston Business School, UK, and a Fellow of the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP).

    Her expertise lies in the psychology of entrepreneurship and understanding what contexts and institutions enable entrepreneurship (e.g., what makes a culture of entrepreneurship). Her research explores the diverse motivations of entrepreneurs, well-being, and social entrepreneurship. Her research has received numerous international awards, has been featured in the media (e.g., Financial Times, BBC, The Guardian, WIRED, Bloomberg, Forbes, AlJazeera), attracted over GBP 3 million in funding, and is published in leading academic journals. Ute serves on the Board of Directors of the GLOBE foundation and the IAAP.

    For more information see www.kcl.ac.uk/people/ute-stephan.

     

    Courtney Fingar, Investment Monitor

    Courtney Fingar is editor-in-chief of Investment Monitor (www.InvestmentMonitor.ai), a digital publication focused on foreign direct investment which launched in September 2020 and is part of GlobalData plc.

    Before joining the group in spring 2020, Ms Fingar spent 15 years with the Financial Times where she was editor-in-chief of fDi Magazine and the head of content for its associated data division, fDi Intelligence, as well as a contributing writer for the FT newspaper.

    She has covered business stories in all major regions of the world and has been on assignment to more than 80 countries in her career. She is a popular panellist and moderator at international economic gatherings and has appeared on television and radio in dozens of countries as a commentator on international investment. She has twice been called to give evidence to the UK Parliament as part of Select Committee inquiries on inward investment.

    Charles Oak, The Londoner Hotel

    Charles is the Hotel Director of The Londoner, the latest project by Edwardian Hotels London, one of the largest privately-owned hospitality companies in the UK. With a hospitality career spanning three decades, Charles is a highly established professional within the industry, with an exemplary background in luxury hotel management and fine dining.

    Charles began his journey by studying Hotel Management at the University of Westminster before completing the renowned Leadership and Management program at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. Having completed his training on the prestigious four-year Management Trainee Program with The Savoy Group, he held several senior management positions in numerous hotels within Edwardian Hotels London’s portfolio including its five-star flagship The May Fair Hotel.

    After founding The Quercus Partnership, a hospitality sector consultancy group, he re-joined Edwardian Hotels London to manage their most ambitious project in their 40-year history, The Londoner. Taking centre stage in London’s Leicester Square neighbourhood on Whitcomb Street, the Londoner is the world’s first Super Boutique hotel, and sits at the heart of the West End theatreland.

    In recognition of his wide-ranging expertise and award-winning success, Charles has recently been made an FIH Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality.

     

    Thank you to all our partners:

    The Radisson Blu Edwardian Hampshire Hotel, Leicester Square
    London & Partners
    The Westminster Property Association
    The New West End Company
    The Heart of London Business Alliance
    The Baker Street Quarter Partnership
    The Victoria, Victoria Westminster, Whitehall and The Northbank BIDs
    The Marble Arch and Paddington BIDs


    About the Westminster Investment Service


    Westminster City Council is establishing a new Westminster Investment Service which will build on Westminster’s success to date in attracting and supporting high-growth business and helping entrepreneurs to scale. Working closely with London & Partners, the BIDs, and the Westminster Property Association, we have aligned Council services to fully support businesses throughout their investor journey in the borough. The new service will contribute to the creation of employment and complement a range of initiatives which are stimulating and accelerating local economic growth.

    For further information about the event please contact:

    Elaine Ballantyne, Westminster Investment Service Manager (Interim)
    eballantyne@westminster.gov.uk

  •  

    In light of the new COVID-19 crisis, the Westminster Business Unit and Westminster Employment Service will be changing the way in which we will be delivering the “drop-in sessions”, as such, the City Council have suspended most of it’s public engagement activity. Instead we will be holding dedicated 15-minute telephone consultations to address business or employment related enquiries. These can be booked anytime from Mon – Friday, 9-5pm. If you wish to speak to both services at the same time, please specify this in your email/phone call when you speak to an officer and we will arrange for this to happen.

    To book an appointment with the Business Unit, please contact:
    businessunit@westminster.gov.uk or telephone on 020 7641 2070

    To book an appointment with the Westminster Employment Service, please contact:
    employmentteam@westminster.gov.uk or telephone on 020 7641 3460

     

    The Business Unit can help:

    • Answer your business enquiries or direct you to someone who can
    • Link your business to the support and advice available in Westminster
    • Provide local economy and market intelligence
    • Respond to local investment enquiries from initial advice to on-going support
    • Introduce the bidding process for council and public sector contracts
    • Align your Corporate Social Responsibility activity with local priorities
    • Ensure concerns and requests are fed back to the Council

     

    Coaches from the Westminster Employment Service (WES) will also be on hand to help residents who are looking for work. WES offers tailored support to jobseekers, including help with finding suitable vacancies, training courses, interview practice and CV writing.

     

  • Brexit-London-Growth-Hub

    Brexit day is upon us and in within hours, the UK will be out of the EU. The Mayor’s London Growth Hub is launching a new campaign to help businesses get ready for change.  Visit the Ready2020 website to find out more: www.ready2020.co.uk. The London Growth Hub is still providing support for businesses affected by the EU exit. There are a number of free workshops open to London SMEs in January and February, to provide advice in uncertain times. For more information, visit here.

  • Get Ready for Brexit word mark signage

    To help small firms and the self-employed to prepare for a no-deal scenario FSB has created a no-deal information hub. This is now live and is designed to provide business with and signpost them to practical information to help them get ready.

    In addition to the information hub, the FSB has also recorded an informative webinar ‘Brexit: What businesses need to know and how to prepare’.

     

  • We are very pleased to let you about the publication of a new toolkit, Living Wage Places: A toolkit on tackling low pay by celebrating local action, which has been recently launched by the Living Wage Foundation and Living Wage Scotland, supported by the Carnegie UK Trust.

    The Living Wage Places scheme launched earlier the year to harness this power of place, supporting local employers, communities and people to work together to help extend the Living Wage to more workers and lift more people out of low pay.

    The new Living Wage Places Toolkit provides valuable, practical insights for places of all size across the UK – cities, towns, boroughs, zones and even buildings – to begin their own Living Wage Place journey. It includes a range of case studies of those places who have already become recognised Living Wage Places, including Dundee as the first city to be recognised for Making a Living Wage City in the UK, Glenrothes as the first town to be recognised for Making a Living Wage Town and International House in Brixton, London which has been accredited as the first Living Wage Building.

    We hope you find the toolkit of interest and if you would like to find out more about the scheme please contact anna@carnegieuk.org.

  • Westminster Reference Library has affordable workspace available to help creative businesses working in fashion, art, design, film and media. The offer includes a fixed desk workspace, Wi-Fi and storage space at £200 per month. The library provides a programme of business and cultural events, along with a range of resources including market research to help small businesses grow. It is located near to Leicester Square, Soho and the West End, offering great public transport links in the heart of London.

    There are now only 3 desks available, so get in touch if you are interested!

    For information on how to apply, email bip@westminster.gov.uk Please use the subject line ‘enterprise space’.

  • Does your organisation have a problem or challenge that could use with additional independent research and analysis? We are now recruiting sponsors for LSE Business Projects for 2019. Student teams who are studying their Master’s in Global Management work with a company in a consultancy-like project from mid-January until early May. Sponsorship of a Business Project has no fee and can work with all sorts of types of organisations and topics. Learn more about engaging with our curriculum and applied projects here.

  • Free legal advice for social enterprises

    Kings Legal Clinic and international law firm Charles Russell Speechlys LLP are teaming up to offer free legal advice to start-up social enterprises. Steve Levett, Director of King’s Legal Clinic at King’s College London said, “Every year in London thousands of businesses are started by people who want to make a difference to their communities. This new legal advice clinic will make this that little bit easier by offering free legal advice on everything from the best form of business structure through to advice on employment contracts or data protection regulations”.

    Students from the Dickson Poon School of Law working under the guidance of legal specialists at Charles Russell Speechlys LLP will offer free face-to-face interviews and letters of advice to anyone needing help to setup or develop a new social enterprise. Help will also be available for people who have recently become or are thinking of becoming self-employed.

    Mark White (Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys) said “Charles Russell Speechlys LLP is delighted to be supporting the Dickson Poon School of Law in offering this new service. There are quite a few places in London where people can go to get help with legal problems around issues like housing or debt, but it can sometimes be difficult for a small business to get free legal advice about business related matters. Getting the right advice from the start can make the difference between success and failure.”

    Kings start-up legal advice clinic will operate by appointment only from King’s legal clinic at King’s College London Strand campus. To make an appointment visit there website here or call 0207 848 1575.

     

Did you know...

  • 1k
    employees per sq km in the West End
  • 1%
    of London's GVA produced by Westminster
  • 1%
    of businesses in Westminster are less than two years old
  • 1
    Jobs in Westminster (13% of the jobs in London)

Contact

Contact the Westminster Business Unit to get information and advice on affordable workspace, business support, employment and training, business rates, licensing, and more.

The easiest way to get in contact with us is via our web form, which can be found here.

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Our business e-newsletter is sent out monthly and keeps you up-to-date with:

  • Special offers and discounts for businesses
  • Advice for SMEs and start-ups
  • Events and training opportunities
  • Ways to help support the community and develop your CSR policy
  • Commercial services available to businesses

 

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