I recently returned from Expo Real in Munich, where I joined colleagues from the City of London Corporation and a UK cities delegation committed to one clear goal:
To drive global investment into the UK and deliver the growth this country needs.
But the competition is fierce. Cities like New York and Singapore are not standing still. The UK’s productivity remains sluggish, inflation is creeping back, and businesses face a more complex tax and regulatory environment. We cannot take our position for granted.
Yet, at Expo Real, there was real cause for optimism. In every conversation I had with developers, funders, and institutional investors, it was the UK’s fundamentals: language, legal system, talent, regulatory environment, global time-zone, that continued to fuel interest in our market.
And in the business heart of London, the Square Mile has a unique and diverse offer, with unrivalled history and heritage, world-class arts and culture, beautiful green and open spaces, restaurants, cafes, pubs, bars, attract tens of m of domestic and international visitors each year.
The City: A gateway to the rest of the UK
As we welcome more than 678,000 commuters, daily, into the City, 99 per cent of people are within five minutes’ walk of a major transport link, making the area one of the most attractive and sustainable places to work, on Earth. The City also remains a gateway to the rest of the UK, a global hub for financial, professional, and tech industries, offering unparalleled opportunities for investors, developers, and businesses.
This is our message to those interested in bringing their capital here, but we can’t be complacent. As the City Corporation’s Chair of Planning and Transportation, it’s vital that I’m able to back up this positive outlook with substance. So, allow me to share some:
We have hundreds of thousands of square metres of office floorspace currently under construction and hundreds of thousands more in the pipeline, including 11 new skyscrapers ready to add to our iconic skyline. The approval of 130 Fenchurch last month marks the seventh office building providing over 50,000 sqm of floorspace in 2025, as we seek to deliver a minimum net increase of 1.2m sqm by 2040.
Our largest office building, 22 Bishopsgate, is 100 per cent let, and our vacancy rate for the best-in-class, Grade A office space is less than 0.5 per cent, compared with 20 per cent in New York. We guarantee a professional, speedy, transparent and fair system for applicants. This offers investors that which matters most to them: Predictability.
Building a City for the future
We’re building a future-ready City that offers far more than buildings. Through our Destination City growth strategy, we’re revitalising the Square Mile into a thriving, seven-day-a-week destination. This means investing in world-class public spaces, culture, retail, and hospitality, because quality of place is key to attracting both talent and tenants.
In June, the City Business and Investment Unit was launched, with the goal to deliver a bespoke service that supports investors, developers, and business occupiers. The Unit will attract, retain, and grow business and investment. It will respond directly to the global race for capital and talent, by seeking to attract high-value investment into strategic growth sectors including fintech, AI, green finance, and creative industries.
Expo Real showed us that confidence in London remains strong, but now is the time to turn that confidence into commitment. Investment into the City is not just a bet on real estate. It’s a bet on the future of the UK economy.
And it’s a bet worth making.
Destination City is the City of London Corporation’s growth strategy for the Square Mile. We want to make the City even more attractive – to investors, students, workers and visitors alike – by showcasing all that it has to offer.Click here to explore more.