What is Heart of the City?

Andrew Buxton:The aim of Heart of the City is to encourage the spread of best practice in supporting the community and thus raise the size of the cake. We did a survey when we first set up Heart of the City two years ago and we found that there were a large number of companies who had very good programmes supporting the community but equally there were a large number which didn't.

When I say companies have not been supporting the community - they have, but in a rather unstructured way, and actually they can do much better for the community and themselves by thinking about it and doing some planning and that's what the good ones do. So we've been persuading the good ones to show off what they do and we've been showing others the way to start up their community programmes. We've had a lot of success.

So what sort of success have you had? Has Heart of the City been successful in making a difference?

Andrew Buxton:In the past 12 months we've generated 80 referrals to our community partners, relating to 45 companies. What that means is we've put in front of 45 companies 80 community needs from somewhere and that has generated new, additional activity in 32 cases. Now that's 32 new supporting programmes in the community.

What sort of programmes are they?

Andrew Buxton:Let me give you examples. A US law firm expressed interest in setting up a partnership with a school, to include a reading programme and student mentoring, was passed on to two community partners which resulted in a programme being set up. A large city firm keen to start a community programme was referred to five community partners.

What we did was said to the city firm: What would you like? We then introduced them to five organisations we thought might gel with them. The company has now launched their community programme and has already run two challenge days, its run a Christmas event for a local project, and its running a reading programme. As another example, we referred a foreign insurance company to a local homeless charity where they have been partnering a young people's project providing IT equipment. Again, this is new stuff.

I want to emphasise that these are organised community programmes. Right through the city there is a tradition of just giving money. But you can go so much further in the community these days by helping the community in a practical way. It also helps the company because very often you find your own employees are thrilled at the opportunity to help their community.

Do you think Heart of the City should be rolled out to include other cities in the UK?

Andrew Buxton: We have had some interest from elsewhere and I think it would be very possible to roll it out. The business community is interested in working together in different cities and each city has its own characteristics. What we have found is that the business community is very prepared to share ideas.

Heart of the City Week begins on Monday this week. What will it involve?

Andrew Buxton:It will involve a variety of happenings, mostly aimed at city companies and city firms showing off what they do, either in presentations, breakfasts, lunches or receptions. We've got a lecture on community and ethical conduct. We're also launching a big programme at a conference in Canary Wharf which is talking about encouraging best practice in the relationships between community and companies. Sometimes, we find that companies do not gel with the community partner we introduce them to, because the community partner doesn't know how the corporate might think.

So what we've done is set up a working party, which includes representatives of community organisations, and is chaired by Sir David Walker who is the chairman of Morgan Stanley in Europe and their report is going to be presented at the conference in Canary Wharf. I think the report will become a good practice guide for community organisations and also for corporates to look at to find out how they should interact with the community. Its good for the corporate sector to know what the community thinks and what they expect from the corporate sector. It will also be useful for community organisations to know how corporates can act and for them to know that in addition to donating money, there is so much more that businesses can do.

You're a former chairman of Barclays. How did you become involved in Heart of the City?

Andrew Buxton:I've always been a big supporter of corporate involvement in the community. I did a lot to start a major programme at Barclays when I was the chairman. I was also a director of the Bank of England and the Governor knew of my interest in the community and asked me if I could head up this organisation. He felt there was a need in the city to encourage companies who were not involved to get involved.

Do you believe that there are commercial benefits to be derived from having an active community programme?

Andrew Buxton:Definitely - and I think they are quite wide. Firstly, I think that big companies in particular have a duty to support the communities they work in. Secondly, they have some members of their staff who will be working in the community. One of the things that struck me when I really started to get Barclays working on community programmes was how many of our own staff were deep into projects of their own and were committing large amounts of free time to helping in the community in some way. We found that supporting our own staff and giving them access to finance and help for the community projects they themselves were interested in improved staff morale. Thirdly, I think its good for corporate image to be in the community and I think that staff and shareholders all expect their company to support its own community.

Is this something that only big companies can afford to do? How do you persuade smaller firms with more limited resources to get involved as well?

Andrew Buxton:I think that every company can be involved and then it can tailor how involved it is to its size. For example, Wachovia Bank in the City has 80 employees and has a wonderful community programme. Happy Computers, run by a very energetic man named Henry Stewart, has a tremendous community programme and they give 10 per cent of their pre-tax profit to the community, which is terrific. Its privately owned and a relatively small company but happens to be run by someone who feels the community is very, very important. while this is not confined to big companies, obviously they can do more than smaller companies. But the principles are exactly the same.

Do you think a strong community programme will help London preserve its world city status?

Andrew Buxton:I don't think necessarily that strong community programmes are an essential part of London remaining an international city. I think that its something London can show to the world but its not an essential part of being an international city. Other factors come into play, like international business, is London a good place to live, is the environment good, and so on. I wouldn't rate working in the community as part of that. However, its still important to the way business is conducted and if the City of London can show that it is a big supporter of the community, which incidentally it is, then it's a reason to be admired.

Do you think the government should be doing more to emphasise the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility?

Andrew Buxton:I think the government has already done a lot and that is one of the reasons community involvement has moved up the agenda. The government has contributed to that by making sure that it is high on the agenda for the government itself.

So have you been working with the government on these issues?

Andrew Buxton:No, we haven't worked closely with the government at all. This is purely an initiative that has come out of the private sector in the city. Its building on a strong tradition in the city of giving to charity and taking that forward into the next stage by involving staff more and reaching out into the community. Having said that, we've obviously informed the government about what we're doing. I have a briefing at the Bank of England in the next ten days with Stephen Timms, who is the minister responsible, but this is not a government initiative.