DEVOLUTION + COLLABORATION + INTERVENTION: HOW LONDON CAN MAINTAIN AND INCREASE ITS LEADING GLOBAL POSITION London does very well in our Arcadis Sustainable Cities Index, ranking second on the overall Index beaten only by Frankfurt. It scores particularly well in two areas: People, which looks at social measures and Profit, the economic health and vibrancy of the city. The city of London attracts some of the world’s best talent, and signs of growth and prosperity are shooting up across our skyline. It is in danger, however, of becoming a victim of its own success; its infrastructure is suffering from under-investment, chronic shortage of affordable housing raises a barrier to keeping talent and air pollution levels are high. The report shows that London is a vibrant, successful city but how can it maintain its competitive position? Investment in infrastructure is key to achieving this and projects such as Thames Tideway Tunnel, Northern Line Extension and Crossrail 2 are a start but capacity is still constrained. Our ageing, heavily congested infrastructure is hindering London’s success at competing to be a world-class city. Global connectivity by air is limited as no new runway capacity is likely until 2030 and resilience in energy supply is at its lowest point ever. All this points to new ways of working as the scale of the technical and funding challenge is unique. Collaboration between the public and private sector must create business cases that will leverage the skills, innovation and funding required to stimulate regeneration and growth.
RANKING ON INDEX
PEOPLE
LONDON #12 • BIRMINGHAM #10 • MANCHESTER #14
LONDON #10
PLANET
• BIRMINGHAM #12 • MANCHESTER #14
PROFIT
LONDON #29 • BIRMINGHAM #2 • MANCHESTER #21
Housing is one area London needs to improve to maintain its position on the world stage. Helping to tackle London’s housing crisis through major regeneration schemes and the emerging Build to Rent sector are at the heart of many of the largest capital investments taking place in the capital today. Our recent report, People and money – fundamental to unlocking the housing crisis, looks at new solutions to expand the capacity of the house building industry in the UK. In our view, access to labour and money is more important than planning and land availability in determining how the UK’s housing crisis should be resolved.