Cllr Tim Barnes, Deputy Leader of Westminster City Council and Cabinet Member for Growth and Planning, has written an open letter in The Critic inviting Shell’s chief executive, Wael Sawan, to bring the company back to Westminster. It follows Lambeth’s new Green Party-led council publicly pressing Shell to pay towards its climate plans because its headquarters is in the borough.
Lambeth’s social media posts pointed to Shell’s offices in the borough and the £7.4 billion it made in three months, added an exploding-head emoji and asked the company to contribute to the council’s climate resilience plan. Cllr Barnes said that amounted to an attempted extra tax on Shell’s presence, “however voluntary the payment is supposed to be”.
“We welcome businesses,” he wrote. “We want them to succeed, expand and employ more people. We understand that commercial success creates the wealth on which public services depend.” He added: “Britain cannot afford a political culture in which every successful business is treated as an embarrassment until it produces another cheque.”
Shell should pay the taxes it owes and meet its legal obligations like any other company, he said, but having its headquarters in a borough should not create an extra debt to the local council for its activities around the world. “Tax something and you tend to get less of it. Here, the risk is less investment, fewer local jobs and less spending with neighbouring businesses.”
Westminster is already home to global businesses including Marks and Spencer and Microsoft’s European offices at Paddington Basin, Burberry in Pimlico, Rio Tinto in St James’s Square and BAE Systems in Carlton Gardens, and in 2022 Diageo moved its global headquarters to Great Marlborough Street in Soho. The city generated £94.8 billion in economic output in 2023, around four per cent of the UK total, and collected more than £2 billion in business rates in 2025/26, roughly seven per cent of all business rates in England.
In September the council published Westminster’s first-ever Growth Statement, built on a “towards yes” approach to unlocking investment, jobs and skills for residents, including young people and care leavers. Cllr Barnes, who lives in Soho and represents the West End, said a successful commercial district must also be somewhere people can live, with clean, safe streets and reliable services.
Pointing to Shell-Mex House on the Strand, he wrote: “Shell has helped shape Westminster before, and we would welcome the opportunity to renew that relationship.” He ended: “We want you here, we want you to grow, and we want our residents to share in your success. My door is open and I look forward to hearing from you.”