City’s Lord Mayor: London isn’t an “evil fairy godmother” dragging rest of the UK down

The City of London’s Lord Mayor will tonight warn that the capital has been “cast as the villain in our national story” despite being an engine of economic growth for the whole country.

Nicholas Lyons, who took on the role in November of last year, will tell a black tie dinner at Mansion House tonight that London has been seen as “sucking the life and wealth out of regions like an evil fairy godmother on a quest for eternal beauty.”

“But the capital is one of the most unequal places in the country and London needs levelling up as much as anywhere else in the UK,” he will tell an audience of business, political, and media leaders from across the city.

The government’s ambition to ‘level up’ the country – a Boris Johnson phrase that has been adopted by Rishi Sunak’s government – has led to fears that cash could be diverted away from the capital to other parts of the country, even though London and the south east are by far the biggest contributors to the Treasury.

The Lord Mayor will cite examples of London projects boosting regional economics. including a Leeds firm contracted to prepare the city’s sewer networks for the new Elizabeth Line – the trains for which are made in Derby.

“Home to a young, international population and leading financial and cultural institutions, London makes a huge contribution to the UK not just via the taxes it collects but also by the investment it attracts and the projects and industries it funds,” he will tell attendees.

The Lord Mayor will discuss plans that the City of London Corporation submitted to Parliament late last year to relocate its historic Billingsgate and Smithfield markets to a purpose-built site in Dagenham Dock which will bring around 2,700 new jobs to the area.

He will also highlight a proposed private sector UK future growth fund of at least £50 billion to invest in long-term asset classes.