LONDON: A delegation from the City of London — the UK capital’s oldest financial district, and a center for trade and commerce since Roman times — will use a visit to Saudi Arabia this week as an opportunity to learn about the very latest in modern infrastructure and city-building.
Tom Sleigh, chair of the City’s Planning and Transportation Committee, told Arab News in an interview on Thursday that the tour will also provide substantial opportunities to develop investments in real estate, cultural projects, and entertainment.
“I think it is very clear for everyone that Saudi Arabia has just got astonishing ambition when it comes to the built environment, when it comes to the development of cities, when it comes to investment in culture and sport and entertainment,” he said.
“That level of ambition, of course, helps when you have substantial funding behind it, but that ambition is really impressive. And I think other cities, and I would include London, need to remember that ambition really matters.”
The City’s two-person team, which departs for the Kingdom on Saturday, is part of a wider delegation represented by Opportunity London, an inward investment scheme for the capital.
Members of authorities across the UK capital are taking part in the visit, as well as representatives from “energy companies, developers and investment firms,” representing a cross-section of interested parties, Sleigh said.
The committee chair is no stranger to the Kingdom, having worked in Al-Jubail about 20 years ago.
Yet the rapid changes brought on by Vision 2030 in Saudi Arabia have not gone unnoticed in the City, leaving Sleigh eager to return, and, among other things, see the “incredible” changes in Riyadh.
He will focus on two areas of major importance to the Kingdom: gigaprojects and the cultural sphere.
A visit to Diriyah, the historic development project on the outskirts of the Saudi capital, will demonstrate shared trends with the City of London, Sleigh said.
“It’s a pedestrianized city, but with three subterranean basements for cars, so it’s really interesting. And there are loads of commonalities between Diriyah and us in the sense that we’re promoting pedestrianization and moving people onto the roads and the traffic off.”
Saudi Arabia’s investment in boosting its cultural output is also attracting attention.
“I have a strong interest in culture. I used to chair the Barbican Center, Europe’s biggest arts center,” Sleigh said. “I chair a theater and I advise the mayor of London on culture. So, we’re going to spend some time visiting (Riyadh’s) Sports Boulevard, visiting some of the cultural assets, and seeing how culture and the arts are expressed and funded, and showcased in Riyadh. I think that will be really cool for us.”
Another focus of the delegation is Cityscape, a Riyadh conference taking place next week to explore city-building opportunities.
“We’re really interested in just how much is happening in Saudi at the moment and how much ambition the Kingdom has. And I would love to see if we can exchange more ideas … these conferences are all about knowledge exchange and knowledge sharing,” Sleigh said.
In his capacity as committee chair, Sleigh will also focus on promoting foreign investment in the Square Mile.
For the Planning and Transportation Committee, much of that goal involves long-term property planning — the City is home to most of London’s tallest buildings — and promoting business-friendly regulation.
“I think the equation is simple. You need to have commercial real estate and housing to be a successful city. That has to be funded by investors, but they only want to put their money if the place they’re investing in has a stable regulatory regime, and has a good legal system that you can trust through disputes and contract law,” Sleigh said.
“In our case in the UK, I think it helps that we speak English and we have Greenwich Mean Time. We sit between different financial zones.”
English common law and the City’s trustworthy planning system, built on centuries of careful decision-making, mean that “of all the places on the planet, if you want to build commercial real estate, the City of London is the most benevolent environment to come and do that,” Sleigh said.
“We’ve been doing this for 2,000 years,” he added. “We still have chunks of the Roman wall lying around and bits of the city. Planning is our most long-term function; we think very long term.”
But the successful, global cities of the future will focus on more than buildings, Sleigh believes.
“It’s about people. It’s about culture. It’s about community. So, we want to have cultural assets. We want to celebrate the archaeology. And it’s about clean, healthy, sustainable buildings and clean, healthy streets — focusing on pedestrianization and a really fantastic public transport network.”
Prospective Saudi investors in London will have access to an array of assets in the Square Mile that are among the city’s most iconic sites, including Smithfield market, the Barbican and around the new Museum of London, set to open next year.
Sleigh said: “We kind of get how busy cities need to have a cultural life. You can’t just be sterile, glass, steel buildings; you need other things.
“I think we recognize the importance of it in creating something more than just a place. It’s a place with people, a place with culture. I would love to see where there might be opportunities (with Saudi Arabia) to either share ideas or investment opportunities.”
