COMMENT For the past four years or so a narrative has become increasingly accepted about London’s position in the UK and its need to redefine itself both in the national consciousness and, by extension, outwardly to the world.
That narrative runs something like this: post-Brexit, post-Covid, and in the context of levelling up, London needs to make a confident and compelling case about its own value. In doing so, it needs to justify the gravitational pull it appears to hold over the whole of the UK in terms of its soft and hard power, social and cultural influence and capital.
A grand paradox
That is not easy. In London, three tiers of government intertwine in a complex ecosystem with a grand paradox baked into the middle. This paradox, which is crucial to understanding London, is that the city has little power over itself but is the seat of a highly centralised national government, world-leading capital markets and cultural and creative industries. Money and power in London do not necessarily mean money and power for London, or Londoners.
In that sense, London has a vested interested in pioneering a new understanding of what a successful city should and could be – to its inhabitants, its home country and to the rest of the world. With other UK cities, it can form a powerful network, greater than the sum of its parts.
As the mayor of London often says, when London succeeds, the rest of the country succeeds, and vice versa.
Professor Greg Clark sets out the context and vision for this in his excellent essay Pioneering the Revised World City and it is this vision that sits at the heart of Opportunity London, a major cross-party public and private sector partnership that is for the first time inviting sustainable investment into the capital.
Opportunity London presents a powerful narrative about London’s future as an open, inclusive and sustainable world city and establishes these ambitions for “good growth” and prosperity as a perfect match for serious ESG investors.
This confident and coherent message – fundamental for UK plc as a whole – can only come from a true partnership of the mayor, the boroughs, the City and the private sector.
Only with these partners working together can we create the right environment for the right investors. Only with these partners working together can we signpost the right investors to the right opportunities in any and all of London’s different and diverse boroughs and communities. Only with these partners working together can we help those with money to spend manage their risk and maintain constructive and rewarding relationships long into the future.
Collaboration with other UK cities
And while, of course, Opportunity London makes a specific case for the capital, a key part of its work is in collaboration with other UK cities, including Greater Manchester, West Midlands and the Liverpool city region. We have a joint interest in ensuring that the UK holds a broad appeal to major foreign investors and there will be many points where our agendas converge.
To take just one critical example, we all want to see the government set out a national roadmap to net zero because we know this is the kind of leadership and certainty our investors want too.
London, led by a mayor committed to decarbonisation, wants to lead the charge by leveraging its undeniable diversity and its centuries of dynamism and creativity to secure the long-term finance required to implement an ambitious retrofit and resilience programme.
We know there are huge social gains to be made from addressing these critical needs and that financial returns on investment will follow from implementing innovative and large-scale solutions.
Signposting investors
And this is true across a huge range of sectors and opportunities, from retrofitting homes to investing in logistics, infrastructure and life sciences. Opportunity London, with its cross-party, cross-sector view, is also mapping, analysing and prioritising these – helping to signpost investors to the right opportunity. After all, each of London’s 33 local authorities (including the City of London Corporation) has the economy, the population of a small city and the leadership with a mandate to deliver for their communities.
It has been easy over these last few difficult years to buy into the rhetoric that London has lost its way. And though recalibration and a resetting of the narrative is inevitable in an ever-evolving world city, we must not forget that new entrants into London will benefit from the £100bn-plus of recent investment into infrastructure and real estate. From the Elizabeth Line to the Olympic Park, King’s Cross and the City cluster to Canary Wharf; Barking Riverside to Battersea and White City to Wembley, we are well into the journey to create greater prosperity and quality of life in a fairer, more resilient city. With Opportunity London we hope many others will join us – to the great and lasting benefit of all the capital’s communities.
Jenna Goldberg is chair of the Opportunity London steering group
