London 2062: The Future of
the London Economy
Mark Kleinman
Assistant Director for
Economic and Business
Policy
Mayor’s Economic
Development Strategy: Key
Themes
London: World Capital of Business
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Improving London’s Competitiveness
Transforming to a low-carbon economy
Extending economic opportunity
Investing in London’s future
 EDS is a long-term high-level strategy
Guiding Economic Principles
 Release of creativity, support
entrepreneurialism
 Facilitate activity, not top-down planning
 Maximum impact from use of public
resources
 Collaborative approach, joint working
London’s economy –
fundamental strengths
 Vast, global city economy
 Job growth of 800,000 between 1996
and 2008; possibly another 750,000 by
2031 – 5.45 million in total.
 International centre of trade and
innovation
 Resilient, diverse economy
 Strong globally competitive position
London’s economy –
potential threats
 Threats to competitiveness
 Worklessness and skills
 Responding to climate change
 Quality of Life
London’s economy in
2062?
 The honest answer: we don’t know…
 Major drivers since 1962:
 Globalisation and internationalisation
 Shift to knowledge economy: financial and
business services; cultural and media; digital and
tech;
 Hyper-diverse population
 How many of these were anticipated?
Continuities:
knowledge
economy
Continuities –
global hub
Continuities –
importance of
infrastructure
London’s economy to 2062
(personal view)
 From Knowledge City to ‘Smart City’;
infrastructure, skills, innovation
 Continuing global hub – but change in
centre of gravity of global economy
 Avoiding polarisation – both within the
city and in relation to other UK cities
Thank you