Events

London Calling

Reports from two of the recent Mishcon round table programme of seminars.

The ‘Future of Westminster’

Mishcon de Reya was delighted to co-host the event with Central London Partnership (CLP) and its CEO Pat Brown. The Westminster Team was led by Council leader Simon Milton, supported by Planning Director Carl Powell and Councillors Angela Hooper and Robert Davis. Concerns voiced by the group included the level of affordable housing quotas raised by Colin Redman, chairman of the Westminster Property Owners Association, and fears that increased levels of parking charges and licensing difficulties would cause restaurants to go under; sentiments voiced by Mike Gottleib and David Coffer on behalf of the Restaurant Association.

Norris on London

Continuing the London theme, the Firm welcomed mayoral candidate Steve Norris to chair a discussion. Kicking off with his thoughts on planning and infrastructure, Norris focused on the huge London population growth and the pressure on housing. The ensuing discussion on affordable housing focused in particular on the distinction between key worker and social housing and the extent to which the government needed to intervene.

Norris also contended that local authorities should raise and spend their own money since at present 83% of their spend comes from central government. Pat Brown of CLP highlighted the outflow of money from London which subsidises the regions whilst London suffers from acute underinvestment. Mishcon partner Ronnie Hooberman brought up the issue of urban squalor in London that is rarely seen in Paris or New York and noted that Londoners seemed to have lost their sense of civic pride. Steve Norris suggested zero tolerance as the only answer. The group also discussed examples of the apparent inadequacies of policing in London with Ken Dytor of Urban Catalyst pointing out that there were now more murders and shootings in Camden than in the Bronx which then inspired an interesting debate on the role and powers of the Mayor compared to the role of Guiliani in New York.

MIPIM

Mishcon de Reya maintained its unbroken record and attended the 15th anniversary MIPIM in March. The team this year included Nick Doffman, Susan Freeman, Matthew Lindsay and Richard Tyler. Unfortunately, Ian Paul never quite made it since an urgent deal intervened or so he told us! The event, the largest yet, gave us the opportunity to entertain and be entertained by many of our clients. Having decided this year to throw a pre MIPIM party to show off our new building we hosted a number of informal dinners in Cannes. One of the highlights was the dinner we organised at trendy Moroccan restaurant Le Harem although we still don’t know how all fourteen of us managed to sit round the table designed for eight. It was certainly one way of combating the unseasonably cold weather in Cannes this year!

Some of us were lucky enough to secure tickets to the Stranglers concert, a new departure for MIPIM courtesy of Akeler, hopefully to be repeated. As well as having the chance to spend time with clients in a more informal and relaxed setting than usual, the team as always made some useful and interesting new contacts and the follow up continues.