The Lord Mayor of the City of London, William Russell, and the City policy chair, Catherine McGuinness, have released a joint message calling for residents, workers and businesses across the capital to work together during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The statement also outlines measures being taken by the City Corporation to support employees, residents and maintain essential services, as well as work underway with authorities.
The pair said: “These are unprecedented times and there will be anxiety across the City – at a personal as well as a business level.
“But we have seen difficult times before and have come through them by working together.
“It is this same spirit of community, resilience and support which we are seeing as we respond together to the threat of COVID-19.
“And we want the residents, workers and visitors to the City of London to know we at the City of London Corporation will do everything we can to help.
“We will maintain critical functions and services for our communities.
“We will support our vulnerable friends and neighbours.
“We will work with all the front-line agencies to deal with this crisis.
“And we will maintain confidence in this vibrant, thriving, dynamic and diverse City.
“Of course, some of our major facilities may be closed temporarily, some of our events postponed and we will have fewer face-to-face meetings.
“Some of the help we now give will be provided by modern technology and remote working rather than by hand.
“But we will be supporting the City, to help employees, businesses and the financial system.
“We will be sustaining our work on long-term competitiveness, for example by continuing our climate action work.
“And we will be speeding the recovery so we are ready, whenever the moment comes, to relaunch a full and strong economy.
“This is a crisis which will require the whole of our capital, and indeed the whole of our country, to work together.
“We are very grateful to all those who are working so hard to keep essential services going.
“We know these will be difficult and even unhappy times for many of our communities and businesses.
“But the fundamental strengths of London will help us to recover and rebuild, as we have done before.
“London will always be one of the world’s leading financial centres, a city of global talent with a highly-skilled workforce and more international HQs than any other European city.
“The timezone that spans Asia and North America will not change.
“And we will always be a city with thousands of pubs, hundreds of art galleries, more than 200 museums, beautiful open spaces and four UNESCO World Heritage sites.
“This City has come through difficult times in the past but there are good reasons for a quiet confidence.
“The City of London Corporation has always played its part in dealing with past crises.
“Working together, we will do so again.”
