City of London Corporation event at the Old Bailey brings together 200 business leaders to make the commercial and talent case for disability inclusion in the Square Mile
Small and medium-sized businesses operating in the City of London have been urged to treat accessibility as a commercial priority rather than a compliance obligation, as new attention falls on the estimated £446 billion in annual spending power held by disabled people and their households across the UK.
The figure — commonly referred to as the Purple Pound — was central to a practical business event hosted by the City of London Corporation at the Old Bailey, bringing together approximately 200 business leaders, accessibility specialists, and people with direct lived experience of disability to give City SMEs actionable guidance on improving access across their workplaces and customer-facing services.
The Commercial Case: What the Purple Pound Represents
The £446 billion figure represents the estimated combined annual disposable income of disabled people and their immediate households in the UK — a consumer market that is frequently underserved by businesses that have not adapted their services, premises, or digital platforms to be fully accessible.
Research on the Purple Pound consistently finds that disabled consumers and their families actively choose to spend with businesses that demonstrate genuine accessibility, and actively avoid those that do not. A significant proportion of this spending potential — estimated by disability spending research at billions of pounds annually — goes unrealised because businesses present barriers that make products and services difficult or impossible to access.
For City of London SMEs, which operate in one of the world’s most densely concentrated financial and professional services districts, the accessibility gap represents both a missed commercial opportunity and a competitive disadvantage relative to businesses that have made accessibility central to their design and service delivery.
The Talent Dimension
The business case for accessibility extends beyond consumer spending. The event’s second major focus was on the workforce implications of disability inclusion for City employers.
Approximately 16 million people in the UK — roughly a quarter of the population — are classified as disabled under the Equality Act 2010. Many have skills, qualifications, and professional experience directly relevant to the financial and professional services roles concentrated in the City of London. The employment rate among disabled people in the UK remains significantly lower than among non-disabled people — a gap that reflects not a shortage of capable candidates but the persistence of workplace barriers that prevent disabled people from being recruited, retained, and developed effectively.
For SMEs specifically, the talent case is acute. Larger employers have typically invested more heavily in accessibility infrastructure — from physical adaptations to flexible working arrangements and assistive technology — leaving SMEs at risk of a competitive disadvantage in attracting candidates who require reasonable adjustments as a condition of effective employment.
The event provided guidance across several practical areas where SMEs can reduce this gap without necessarily significant financial investment:
Workplace adjustments — Many reasonable adjustments cost little or nothing to implement. Flexible start times, remote working options, adjusted lighting, quiet working spaces, and modified equipment provision are among the most commonly requested adjustments and are frequently achievable within existing business infrastructure.
Flexible working — Post-pandemic normalisation of hybrid and flexible working has reduced one of the most common barriers for disabled employees, who previously faced significant challenges with rigid location and hours requirements that may not accommodate treatment schedules, fatigue, or mobility needs.
Inclusive meetings — Practical changes to how meetings are conducted — including providing agendas in advance, using captions for video calls, ensuring accessible seating at in-person meetings, and distributing materials in accessible formats — reduce barriers without restructuring business processes.
Digital accessibility — Websites, documents, and internal systems that are not designed for screen reader compatibility, colour contrast requirements, or keyboard navigation create barriers both for employees and customers with visual, motor, or cognitive disabilities.
Communication — Accessible communication practices, including plain language, alternatives to phone-only contact channels, and availability of information in multiple formats, widen the range of customers and employees who can engage effectively.
Customer service — Staff training on disability awareness and appropriate service approaches ensures that accessibility infrastructure is supported by informed human interaction rather than undermined by it.
The City Belonging Project
The event formed part of the City of London Corporation’s City Belonging Project — an ongoing programme aimed at making the Square Mile a place where all residents, workers, visitors, and businesses can genuinely belong, thrive, and succeed regardless of personal characteristics or circumstances.
The Corporation’s Sheriff of London, Deputy Keith Bottomley, hosted the event and framed accessibility explicitly as a business and opportunity issue rather than a peripheral or compliance-driven concern. He said businesses that make their products, services, and workplaces accessible can reach more customers, attract more talent, and create better experiences for everyone — including customers and employees without disabilities who benefit from the improved design and service quality that accessible approaches tend to produce.
This last point — that accessibility improvements benefit a wider population than those with disabilities — is a well-established principle in accessible design known as the curb-cut effect. Features originally developed for disabled users, from dropped kerbs to autocomplete text and automatic doors, consistently prove useful to a broader population than the specific group they were designed to serve.
The Legal Baseline
Beyond the commercial case, City businesses have legal obligations under the Equality Act 2010 that require employers and service providers to make reasonable adjustments to remove barriers faced by disabled people.
Reasonable adjustments apply to:
- Physical premises — removing or altering physical barriers where reasonably practicable
- Employment practices — modifying recruitment processes, working arrangements, and job structures to accommodate disabled employees and applicants
- Services — adjusting how services are delivered to ensure disabled customers can access them on terms equivalent to non-disabled customers
Failure to make reasonable adjustments can result in employment tribunal claims, county court proceedings for service access, and reputational damage — risks that are preventable through the kind of practical guidance the event was designed to provide.
The reasonable adjustment requirement is not absolute — adjustments must be reasonable having regard to cost, practicality, and the scale of the business — but smaller businesses are not exempt, and the threshold for what is reasonable adjusts proportionally to business size and resources.
Key Statistics on Disability and Business in the UK
Several figures provide context for the scale of the opportunity and gap that the event addressed:
- £446 billion — estimated annual spending power of disabled people and their households in the UK (Purple Pound)
- £2 billion per month — estimated value of business lost by UK companies due to poor accessibility, referred to as the Click-Away Pound in digital retail research
- 16 million — approximate number of disabled people in the UK under the Equality Act definition
- 52.6 percent — employment rate among disabled people in the UK (2024), compared to approximately 82 percent for non-disabled people
- 1 in 5 — approximate proportion of the UK working-age population with a disability or long-term health condition
These figures collectively indicate that disability inclusion represents one of the largest untapped opportunities in UK business — both in terms of consumer spending and workforce participation — and that the gap between current and potential performance is substantial.
Practical Next Steps for City SMEs
Businesses in the City of London seeking to improve accessibility can access support through several channels:
Business Disability Forum — A membership organisation providing practical guidance, toolkits, and training for businesses on disability inclusion in employment and customer service.
Disability Confident scheme — A government programme through which employers can demonstrate and develop their commitment to employing disabled people across three levels: Committed, Employer, and Leader.
AbilityNet — A charity providing technology accessibility guidance for businesses seeking to improve digital accessibility for employees and customers.
City of London Corporation — Through the City Belonging Project, the Corporation continues to provide resources and connections for Square Mile businesses working on accessibility improvements.
The Accessibility in the City event represented one point in an ongoing programme of support rather than a standalone initiative, with the City Corporation committed to continuing engagement with SMEs on accessibility as part of its broader work to ensure the Square Mile remains competitive, inclusive, and genuinely open to all.
