Former poverty campaigner puts talent, housing and transport at top of wish-list

FOR someone who made her name helping tackle child poverty around the globe, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Jasmine Whitbread’s new gig, leading business group London First, would be a more tranquil affair. But, with Brexit around the corner, achieving the member-funded organisation’s mission of making the capital the best city in the world to do business has suddenly become a lot more complex.

Whitbread, a former head of Save The Children, whose career has taken her to war zones and harsh terrain, is ready to roll up her sleeves again. “This is an absolutely crucial time for London,” she tells me from London First’s Fitzrovia headquarters. “The clock will start ticking and we have got to come out of the gate in 2019 as Brexit-ready as we can be.”

The slim 53-year-old, with sleek blonde hair and wearing a stylish navy suit, says last June’s Leave vote has rattled many of London First’s members, who produce a quarter of the capital’s GDP and include Barclays, Sainsbury’s, Primark and Deloitte. “There’s quite a lot of concern across business about what Brexit means. Does it mean, after 25 years of really good growth and London being right up there with global capitals, that there’s some jeopardy now?”

Already, some have taken “a real foot off the gas in terms of investment decisions” or are considering hedging their bets by putting that extra office into Frankfurt or Dublin. In comparison, the upcoming election is less troublesome, with business generally “unfazed” by the poll. “The feeling is this might set out a clearer, more certain way forward,” Whitbread says.

For London First, founded in 1991 with the aim of influencing government policy and investment decisions, the next five weeks of campaigning will mean a chance to quiz all sides about its three major priorities: talent, housing and transport.

Whitbread, who was appointed in D e c e m b e r, describes talent as members’ “number one issue”. The group’s approach is two-pronged. First, it wants business to think more closely about how it can train people up, for example, through apprenticeships, and dovetail that with government policy on skills and education. Second is immigration, a subject that has clearly been a source of some frustration.

We need to “get the facts on the table” about how much London has benefited from foreign workers, Whitbread stresses. A report by London First and PwC shows that, on average, a migrant worker in a full-time job in London contributes an additional £46,000 net in gross value added (GVA) each year to the economy. The additional GVA generated by 10 migrant worker jobs will support an additional four jobs in the wider economy.

Once that’s sorted, she’s after a “phased and realistic immigration policy” from whoever is in No 10 come June. Should that be Theresa May, Whitbread sees “no reason whatsoever… not to fulfil on much-floated, but not yet delivered, guarantees on the rights of EU citizens”.

On housing, she is focusing on solutions as well as efforts to shed light on the capital’s chronic shortage of homes. Among them is getting employers to commit to providing financial support to staff to cover expenses like commuting or tenancy deposit schemes. Grant Thornton, the Metropolitan Police and law firm Pinsent Masons are among those to have made the pledge.

Efforts on transport largely revolve around getting the go-ahead for Cross-

‘The clock will start ticking and we have got to come out of the gate in 2019 as Brexit-ready as we can’

rail 2. Whitbread reels off the cautionary tale of the original Crossrail, conceived of even before London First but only set to launch next year. London First kept up the pressure to bring that about and plans to do the same for its proposed sister line.

“There’s a danger Crossrail 2 will suffer the same wasted time, wasted money and missed opportunities. We’ve got to get going now.” But can she be sure London First will have the same impact it did in the past — won’t there be enough for government and business to do in untangling the Brexit deal itself ? Whitbread doesn’t see it that way. “I’m trying to make sure we’ve got senior leadership, the chief executives and chairs, who will engage. Actually they are, and that’s not a tough ask because the stakes are higher.”

Those who know Whitbread say you’d be foolish to bet against her. She is warm and friendly but also “dangerously persuasive”, according to Sir Alan Parker, founder of PR agency Brunswick. “When she came round to interview me to be chairman of Save The Children UK, I knew I wasn’t leaving the room without saying yes. She is enormously practical, enormously competent and can actually pull it off.”

Whitbread, who started life in Ladbroke Grove with her British Gas manager father and Swiss mother, has always had a fearless nature.

She was the first of her family to go to university — Bristol, to study English. In her first job in marketing at Rio Tinto, despite being on the lowest rung of the ladder, she petitioned her superiors for more resources and later

AFTER three ye ars, the intrepid family returned to Britain when Whitbread became Oxfam’s international chief. In 2005, she jumped ship to run Save The Children UK and was among the instigators of a huge reorganisation, which brought all its international branches under one roof — albeit causing a brief furore over her £234,000 salary along the way. It sounds like she earned it though. “It was a phenomenal achievement. She absolutely did the hard yards,” Parker says.

She left in 2015 but kept her place on the boards of BT and Standard Chartered. She was frequently held up as an example by Lord Davies, a former trade minister and campaigner for female representation on company boards. She was even a real-life poster girl in 2013 when she was selected alongside Dame Helen Mirren to feature in Marks & Spencer’s “leading ladies” advertising campaign. Being photographed by Annie Leibovitz was “a great opportunity”.

Outside work, Whitbread, who lives in south London but also has a bolthole in Oxfordshire, heads to the Thames to row. She took up the sport in her midforties and is out on the water most weekends. “It’s challenging, mentally and physically, in a good way. I can empty my mind — I’m in the moment.”

She’ll need all that calm to navigate the choppier waters that are in store for the capital.

@clarehutch