CorpComms Magazine

Sometimes life is all about timing. It was certainly so for Alex Aiken, director of corporate communications at Westminster City Council. His appointment seven years ago neatly coincided with the arrival of Peter Rogers as chief executive and Simon Milton as the leader of the council. It meant the trio could start with a blank piece of paper and plan a future strategy to serve the 38,000 businesses (more than any other London borough), 181,000 residents and 570,000 people who work in Westminster.

But first they had to deal with rebuilding the reputation of Westminster City Council, which stretches from the government's historic home to the world-famous Oxford Street, across to the former royal hunting grounds at Paddington, the exclusive residential areas of Notting Hill and Maida Vale, the slightly less salubrious Kilburn and everything encompassed by the London W1 postcode.

For Aiken, reputation management was a priority. In 1994 Westminster City Council was embroiled in a scandal when it was alleged the leadership had manipulated housing policies for political advantage. The council's reputation and in-house morale were both at an all-time low, and the communications department was struggling to reverse the situation.

As head of the communications function, Aiken had to deal with elected politicians who were disproportionately upset by local press coverage, and professional management members who mistakenly thought they communicated well with staff. He also had to centralise a function that had become unwieldy and disparate.

The key, according to Aiken, was to separate facts from fiction. It is a strategy that underpins everything he and his 30-strong team undertake today. 'You need to have an iron grip on strategy,' he explains. 'And to have a clear head about the value of a communications strategy.' Aiken certainly does. He is able to produce facts and performance metrics to justify every piece of work completed by his team. 'We offer evidence-based communications,' he says. 'It provides us with the tool to lead and engage in debate.'

Leading by example

Such has been the success of his approach that today Westminster City Council offers a communications consultancy service to other local councils. The service, which has been used by the London boroughs of Richmond-upon-Thames, Merton and Hillingdon, as well as the Isle of Wight, generates annual income of £1 mn. Aiken has personally been involved with a three-month project for Slough, home to the fictional paper merchant Wernham Hogg and David Brent from The office. Did being mocked in the UK's most successful sitcom affect Slough?

Not surprisingly, Aiken has done some research. 'Half thought being ridiculed had negatively impacted Slough, while half thought it hadn't,' he explains. 'But Slough's biggest difficulty is not The office. It has to focus on what it is now, and not what it could be. Focus is important.' He is scathing of councils that promote their sights rather than their services.

The income from the consultancy is ploughed back into the department, but the service also provides a career path for members of Aiken's team. Several of his employees have been seconded to part-time senior roles for the clients, which gives them greater experience. But they are in constant touch with Aiken, working in his 17th floor office overlooking the Palace of Westminster. 'It is a very strict format,' he explains. 'We have a rigorous approach to everything.'

Rigorous does, to some extent, mean meetings: there is a Monday meeting to discuss the fortnight ahead, a morning meeting to preview the day, an evening review meeting and a weekly round-up meeting, while Aiken attends countless other strategy meetings with Rogers and Milton, keeping him at the heart of the message.

Consequently, Aiken can discuss the outcome of any initiative, the numbers and breakdown of guests at a function, and highlight where further work is needed. 'If you strip out property values, people generally want to live in a place with history and where they feel a sense of belonging,' he says. 'The role of a city council is to act as a big partner, and the Westminster brand is bigger than any one of us. It is there on the street signs, on public seating and litter bins.' This public display means there is a very definite association between the council and its services, and that could so easily backfire.

'We have strong campaigns with clear objectives,' says Aiken. 'For instance, we know residents have a fear of crime. How can we contribute to alleviating that? How can communications do that?' The answer is, perhaps, to involve the police in local community programmes, building confidence in the service. 'We ran a very successful communications strategy regarding recycling,' Aiken continues. 'There was observable evidence of its success.'

The North-South divide

But Westminster is also a council of contrasts. It is home to some of London's toughest council estates and most exclusive addresses. 'Typically, our residents in the south of the borough read the Daily Telegraph while those in the north prefer the Daily Mirror,' explains Aiken. 'The local democracy is hugely important and we do get pressure on certain issues from ward leaders.' Among the issues raised via this route was the role and future of small shopkeepers, which has led the council to actively encourage and facilitate the development of old and new markets on side streets.

Currently, Westminster City Council is working with partners such as retailers John Lewis and Selfridges to promote Oxford Street as a must-visit shopping venue, and to tackle the long-standing problem of the quality of the shops toward the Tottenham Court Road end. A similar project to boost the retail community around Marylebone High Street has proved a tremendous success.

Inevitably, some campaigns backfire. 'We don't blame anyone - we learn from it, and do things differently the next time,' says Aiken. One of the council's biggest failures was its inability to prevent the introduction of the congestion charge zone, or its subsequent expansion. The communications team campaigned vociferously against its introduction because, as Aiken constantly points out, residents were opposed, and residents are his priority. Their efforts proved fruitless, but not worthless. 'The residents could see the council was on their side,' says Aiken. After the problems of the 1990s, that was exactly what they needed to hear.

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