Bright lights of London can lead the way for all UK

I HAVE lost count of the number of times that sages far wiser than me have predicted a flood of bankers and other City professionals out of London to rival centres such as Frankfurt and Geneva. Funnily enough it never happens.

Sure, a handful will make the move to the plains of central Germany, or be drawn by the delights of life beside Lac Léman. But not many. Meanwhile the number of people working in the City just grows and grows.

And the results of a survey published today go a long way towards explaining why. Among the global workforce — the people running big businesses and financial institutions, London remains top dog. The study, conducted by Boston Consulting Group, The Network, and The Stepstone Group, surveyed more than 150,000 respondents from 188 countries who were asked to rank their top 10 most desirable cities for work.

London came out number one, as it has ever since the survey first came out 10 years ago, ahead of Amsterdam, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and New York. Poor old Paris did not make the top 10 and the next best placed British city is Edinburgh on 53rd.

Such a consistent performance in a survey on such a large scale suggests the London, for all its faults, has something profoundly attractive to offer. It’s not the weather. The survey results are a reassuring reminder that

London is a world class asset to the UK. The Government has been openly hostile towards the capital ever since its former Mayor helped deliver the Brexit vote, and then got the keys to Number 10 himself on the back of votes in the Midlands and the North.

The coming general election is a chance for a reset. Not to make London a dominant force that blots out the light for the rest of the country, but to use its incredible strengths to help the UK as a whole find its way back to growth and prosperity. That would be a far better route to levelling up.