Four Jobs Rees declares another pecuniary interest
The mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, has added another job to his register of interests: “An honorarium from 17 Rooms (Center for Sustainable…
The mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, has added another job to his register of interests: “An honorarium from 17 Rooms (Center for Sustainable Development at The Brookings Institution and The Rockefeller Foundation)”. An honorarium is effectively payment for services for which fees are not traditionally required. Rees registered it under ‘employment’ as a pecuniary interest.
This fourth addition fits alongside being chair of the City Regions board (1.5 to 2 days a week), chair of Core Cities, and non-executive director at Plimsoll Productions.
We only know his mayoral salary, £83k, and his LGA allowance, £17.5k. The rest of the payments in addition to his £100k from public funds, are undisclosed.
The Center for Sustainable Development researches and promotes the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) “within and across all countries”.
As part of the centre, 17 Rooms is an experimental method for advancing the economic, social, and environmental priorities embedded in the world’s SDGs. It’s formed by the Washington D.C. based Brookings Institution and The Rockefeller Foundation (last seen in Bristol with the Resilient City award).
Economic growth is at the core of the SDGs and presented as the engine for eradicating poverty. But, as the UN rapporteur for poverty, Philip Alston, writes, “after decades of unparalleled growth, the primary beneficiaries have been the wealthiest.
Rather than an end to poverty, unbridled growth has brought extreme inequality, widespread precarity in a world of plenty, roiling discontent and climate change — which will take the greatest toll on the world’s poor.”
“The rush to fund the SDGs through ever-greater reliance on the private sector, whether through public-private partnerships or philanthropy, is a blind alley. Too many ‘win-win’ promises are fairy tales,” Alston said.
“Instead multinational companies and investors draw guaranteed profits from public coffers, while poor communities are neglected and underserved.”
Essentially, the SDGs are a way of diverting public funds to private corporations in the name of ‘helping’ the poorest.
Marvin Rees now seems to be a paid-up advocate.
In June 2022, a report by Brookings on Local Leadership Driving Progress on the SDGs praised him for bringing a motion to the LGA.
Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees also called for a motion to embed the SDGs in the work of the Local Government Association that represents all local governments in England, lobbying the national government for more resources for local governments.
Rees is often Tweeting about the SDGs for which he now appears to be getting paid. We need to ask the mayor of Bristol who he is lobbying for.
In June 2022, Rees was asked by ex-Cllr Anthony Negus whether he would be giving his full commitment to this council.
He replied:
“that a number of us who don’t come from a background where we are supported by the bank of Mum and Dad, is that I do have three children and a wife that need me to earn some money. That’s the brutal reality of it. And so I should also take account of my own interests because it’s not about me swanning off over the horizon, it’s about me being a responsible husband, father, son, and brother.”
Is he now a responsible lobbyist for the Rockefellers too?