Firms warned on terror plans

THOUSANDS of London businesses, especially small and medium-sized companies, have done little or nothing to ready themselves for a 9/11-style terror attack on the capital, an influential business lobby group is claiming.

The news comes as many City firms are using today's anniversary of the attacks on New York and Washington to send staff to outlying sites to test disaster recovery systems.

London First is warning that business evacuation plans and systems back-up procedures have 'fallen back down the boardroom agenda', in the words of its deputy chairman Gerry Acher.

'We do not mean to be alarmist but we are sounding the alert that businesses need to address issues to counter the threat of a terror attack,' said Acher, a former senior partner of City accountants KPMG. 'Maybe as many as a thousand companies are up to speed and, say, another 2,000 have done something. But a great number of businesses are saying it can't happen to us.'

London First is urging businesses in the capital to sign up to the City of London Police's pager and email network which alerts companies to a terror attack. But Acher is warning that many still need to rehearse what they would do in the event of an attack.