The House | The City of London can help the new chancellor deliver growth in every postcode

3 min read10 min

As speculation runs this weekend about cabinet appointments, including at the Treasury, I am keen to outline how the City can help the new government deliver its ambition of good growth in every postcode.

Put simply, only a true partnership between business and government can generate the growth needed to support sustainable public services. May’s GDP update – putting growth at 0.1 per cent – illustrates the scale of the challenge facing the incoming inhabitants of 10 and 11 Downing Street.

As stewards of London’s Square Mile, we’ve been balancing risk with opportunity for more than a thousand years. In doing so, we have helped foster a business environment where financial and professional services thrive, creating more than 2.5m jobs across the UK – with two-thirds of them outside London.

This is due to the brilliance and dynamism of those who work in the City. It’s due to the relationship between government and business, working together to advance shared interests.

And it’s because, unlike other financial centres, the City is protected by its own police force, working with the Square Mile to keep businesses and workers safe. We know how much firms value the City Police for their wider expertise across cyber, fraud and economic crime, developed over many years. And a safe and secure environment encourages much-needed inward investment.

Indeed, the UK economy needs growth both in the City of London and across all our nations and regions to succeed. At the City Corporation, we’re already taking steps to turn this ambition into action with the launch of a new AI-enabled, digital-led platform InvestConnect.

It will present curated infrastructure and property investments to global and domestic professional investors, with values typically exceeding £100m. Already, investors representing more than $3 trillion (USD) of assets under management from across Europe, North America, the Gulf, Asia and Australia have agreed to participate, with more expected to join.

For years, professional investors have been telling us they want to invest in the UK because of our time zone, language, world-renowned rule of law and respected regulation. They seek high-quality, long-term investment opportunities, and every part of the UK has ambitious projects with the potential to drive growth, create jobs and strengthen local communities.

This is where InvestConnect can be game-changing. The City provides the finance, the regions provide innovation, expertise and industrial capability, and together they create the conditions for good growth across the whole country.

From Land’s End to John O’Groats, we are working to make this a reality. Cornwall Council, the Scottish Government and Liverpool City Region Combined Authority are already signed up.

This initiative is just the latest example of the City of London Corporation acting as a strategic partner to successive governments to generate growth.

We continue to work with the government to ensure delivery of the Mansion House Accord, to build a more dynamic, competitive investment ecosystem allowing smaller firms to scale while delivering improved returns to savers.

To compete globally, UK firms rely on a business environment that encourages investment, and yes, that means a competitive tax landscape.

Whoever is appointed chancellor in the coming days, I would like to extend the very same offer of partnership, so the Square Mile can continue making its substantial contribution to growth far beyond the City of London; to all regions and nations of the UK.

With growth scarce, there’s not a moment to lose.

Chris Hayward is Policy Chairman at the City of London Corporation