The Battle of the Giants: London v New York - London comes up trumps - LandAid

Feb

2012

The Battle of the Giants: London v New York - London comes up trumps

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Last night saw London take the crown as the global city for business in front of over three hundred of the most influential members of the property

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industry, in the final show down between London and New York at the 2012 LandAid Debate sponsored by Cushman & Wakefield.

The invite only event saw Howard Wolfson and Robert Steel, Deputy Mayors of New York, take on Boris Johnson, The Mayor of London and Tim Campbell, the Mayor’s Ambassador for Training and Enterprise and winner of the BBC’s The Apprentice, fight it out for the title of ‘Global City for Business’.

Each city was given three minutes to put forward its case in the presidential style debate. London’s victory cannot be attributed to Boris’ time keeping however despite the efforts of Sarah Montague from BBC Radio Four’s Today programme, when he insisted “this isn’t the Today programme, no one told me I had three minutes. This is City Hall I can speak for as long as I like.”

Boris Johnson’s bombastic nature stole the show and during his opening gambit he revealed that he was, in actual fact, a New York native, having been born in the ‘Big Apple’. Robert Steel, Deputy Mayor of New York City was fast to counteract, stating that he had lived in London for seven years, further adding that the multi-cultural make-up of New York (35 per cent of the population are first generation New Yorkers) is what gives New York its edge.

Both teams were then subjected to questions from an impressive panel of experts including Giles Barrie (Editor of Property Week), Tony Travers (Director of Greater London Group, LSE) and Todd Benjamin (former - CNN journalist) covering issues such as their city as a financial centre, transport and development.

One thing on which both cities agreed, was the need to support young and disadvantaged people, something that Sarah Montague was very keen to point out. Both sides congratulated each other in their work in this area, which is ever more relevant in the context of the work LandAid does up and down the country. However in the final vote London came up trumps, despite the superb efforts of the New York Mayors.

Joanna Averley, Chief Executive, LandAid stated:
“As the newly appointed Chief Executive of LandAid, the property industry, I am delighted that the debate has raised £50,000. I would like to warmly thank everyone who was involved in the event and all those who continue to support LandAid in all the work we do to help young people achieve their potential.”

LandAid would like to thank Cushman & Wakefield for sponsoring the debate, Helical Bar for sponsoring the reception and the Debate Committee for organising the event.

Debate Committee: Pat Brown (Central), David Erwin (Cushman & Wakefield), Susan Freeman, (Mishcon de Reya), Mike Slade (Helical Bar).