12. Meeting with Michael Mainelli, prospective Lord Mayor 2023/24 - 10 October 2022


I met Michael (who is an honorary Freeman of our Company) to learn a little about his priorities for his coming year as Lord Mayor, to describe our current activities and to promise that we will offer him our full support during his Mayoralty.

Whilst it is early days, Michael mentioned a couple of potential priorities: (i) recruitment of younger people to the livery movement; and (ii) what he referred to as ‘Knowledge Mile’ – the various liveries developing and showcasing new ideas in their respective fields, capitalising on the City’s international connections: this might include a series of webinars and indeed demonstration projects of some form.

I indicated that these priorities tied in very closely with our own, highlighting our associate and webinar programmes and our work on water sector governance along with the City Water Debate; we had a particularly interesting discussion on the role of market friendly incentives as means of achieving environmental goals.

We agreed four action points:

  1. Water Conservators to participate in Lord Mayor’s webinar programme 2023/24 based round our theme for that year; I indicated that governance of the water sector was one of our themes for this year; this may develop/broaden particularly as we near a general election; I will discuss with Martin Bigg, Thames Warden/prospective Master for 2023/24;
  2. Water Conservators to consider whether there may be a suitable experiment/demonstration project (in the City) which could be conducted/promoted during the year; (I mentioned sewer blocks, a major topical issue, where we are already in discussions re the City Corporation promoting ‘bag it and bin it’ in their lavatories and being an exemplar for the City and country more widely; rather a specific item but there may be just possibly be something along these lines);
  3. Water Conservators to consider the applicability of policy performance bonds (PPBs) and other market friendly approaches mentioned by Michael, to the future governance of the water industry;
  4. Michael and I to reconvene in advance of our Election Court Lunch (5/4/23) at which Michael has kindly agreed to speak; it may be that he will wish then to say more about his Mayoralty and how the Water Conservators can support him.

It was an incredibly stimulating meeting. It is good to know that our direction of travel ties in with Michael’s; our Company and the City as a whole will be privileged to have someone of Michael’s energy and vision as Lord Mayor.

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