A rising tide lifts all boats, and London is providing the most obvious bouyancy
It might be too much to expect a thank you from the rest of the country – but London and the south east can be entitled to feel a little hard done by our polling of the rest of the country’s attitude towards the region’s economic input.
Those who have made their lives in the region are used to the complaints from visitors: too busy, too crowded, too expensive. Some of those criticisms are fair, especially as the average house price soars towards £600,000 and a pint nears the £7 mark. But it is also the most dynamic, innovative, exciting region not just in the country but in western Europe and – at its best – the world. And it’s the only one the UK has got. The government should look after it more than it seems minded to.
The UK’s trend growth forecasts are nothing short of terrible. And with an aging population and, yes, desperately needed infrastructure upgrades, that growth will not sustain our current tax-and-spend system. In order for that system to survive, more needs to be coming into the Treasury than it currently is. Much of it comes from London and the south east, and yet central government often feels as if it shares the view of the almost two thirds of those outside the capital who can’t bring themselves to call London a force for good for the country. No wonder Sadiq Khan throws his arms up in despair when yet again Transport for London is forced to go cap in hand for emergency cash.
The good news is there are remedies here which are easy wins for all. In these pages, the CBI – an organisation which pleasingly seems to have shrugged off its predilection for caution and once again embraced some of the animal spirits of capitalism – call for an overhaul of the investment regime that will help firms in Teeside as much as those by the Thames. Whitehall needs to remember that a rising tide lifts all boats. At the moment it is in danger of ignoring the only economic liferaft it currently has at its disposal.