The Economic Future of the Central Activity Zone (CAZ) Phase 1: Office use trends and the CAZ ecosystem Report to the Greater London Authority (GLA)
2. The CAZ has a functioning ecosystem made up of essential industries, users and institutions London’s global role London is one of only two Alpha ++ cities in the world, alongside New York City (Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) Research Network, 2020). London consistently features at the top, or in the top bracket, of the world’s cities. For many of these polls, London’s unique strength comes in combining political, economic and cultural power. Naturally, a risk to any of these strengths risks undermining London’s global status. The location of the CAZ and its transport systems plays a huge part in its success. In the past, London’s location helped it become a focus of physical trade routes. This now means that the city has swift physical access to more of the world’s population than many of its competitors, and has the largest airport system in the world. Its connectivity to the rest of London, the wider South East, the UK, and indeed the rest of the world ensures easy access to a wide labour pool, as well as visitors from home and abroad. However, this connectivity also means that it is vulnerable to restrictions in international travel. London is recognised as being one of the most visited cities in the world (Street, 2019). Half of the trips to the UK include a trip to London (ONS, 2019b) and London has more 12 times more international visits than the next UK city (London & Partners, 2013). The CAZ has a high concentration of tourist attractions and 90% of all visits in London are to the top 20 cultural January 2021
attractions of which most are located in the CAZ (GLA, 2017a).
departments, courts of justice, and the vast majority of foreign embassies.
Coupled with this, London has more perennial attractions. It is a pleasant place to live, work and do business, making it the most desirable city in the world (the World’s Best Cities, 2020; Boston Consulting Group, 2018) and the “world’s coolest city” (Rough Guides, 2020), despite the UK’s recent reputational impacts from Brexit. One-third of the capital is open green space (World Cities Culture Forum, 2019), the highest figure for a major city, and a much larger proportion than in New York or Paris. London also has some of the best educational establishments of any major world city, with the highest performing schools system in the UK underpinned by the performance of migrants (Sunday Times, 2019; CMPO, 2014).
London homes, whilst expensive, are more likely to be better value than in New York, Hong Kong, or other global cities (Savills, 2019), and more likely to benefit from single family occupancy.
London has been named as the best student city in the world (QS Top Universities, 2019) for many years, with over 25,000 students from China alone, a number which was growing at 20% per annum pre-COVID-19, but is now much more at risk (HESA, 2020). Over half of London’s 18 higher education establishments are in the CAZ, and they sit alongside core research institutions such as the Francis Crick Institute, the Alan Turing Institute and the Wellcome Trust. London is home to the UK’s central seat of government in Westminster, as well as ministerial
London has also for many years been the beating heart of the UK economy. London alone was responsible for nearly 4% of the total European, US and Japanese GVA in financial services (Oxford Economics, 2011), and if London were an independent nation it would have been the seventh largest economy in the EU, ahead of Sweden, Poland and Belgium (GLA, 2017c). Combined with the greater South East region, London would rank even higher. With the devolution agenda, it is imperative that London enables the levelling-up of the rest of the country, whilst maintaining its core specialisms and attracting talented and innovative individuals. Though London is a true leader on the global stage, it cannot rely on past success and become complacent, but must work hard to retain its position over the coming years. As the direct impact of the pandemic subsides, strident, cohesive, clear and visionary leadership will be imperative to reinforce and redefine London’s role on the global, national and regional stage. 31
