Focus: Greater London
Along with being Europe’s financial, business and creative capital, London is also one of the world’s most dynamic cities. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been successfully leading the way with an internationally recognized financial rescue package to counter the current global economic downturn. While London is not immune to the downturn, it offers foreign investors the best opportunities to both survive and thrive through challenging times.
London possesses all of the attributes to support its continuing status as a global city. It is consistently ranked as the best place to locate a business in Europe; one-third of the world’s largest companies have their European headquarters in London; it is the UK hub for global decision-makers across a variety of industries and sectors, offering access to a high-quality business support infrastructure which includes finance, premises, utilities, support services, suppliers, logistics, as well as a skilled labor pool and a stable but flexible regulatory environment.
GREAT VALUE FOR MONEY
Now, London offers great value for money,
too. Current market conditions lead to
unique investment opportunities, with
London losing its status as the world’s most
expensive office location for the first time
in nine years. According to the new “Office
Space Across the World 2009” report
from global real estate advisor Cushman &
Wakefield, Hong Kong and Tokyo are now
the world’s two most expensive locations,
relegating London to third place. Although
rents in Hong Kong actually fell 4% in 2008,
the much larger 23% fall in London’s West
End pushed occupancy costs down further
to €1,403 per sq m per annum. Commercial
property costs have decreased up to 30%
in the West End from 2007 to 2008.
London’s talent pool has widened and deepened, offering a rich source of quality support to companies in a challenging market place. Sterling’s depreciation by over 23% against the dollar in the last seven months now means London offers better value for money for foreign companies investing in the UK’s capital. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Cost of Living Survey (March 2009) demonstrates that London has slid from last year’s rank as the eighth most expensive city to 27th position, ranking below New York for the first time since 2002.
NUMBER ONE LOCATION
London is the ultimate place to do business. For the 19th year running it was voted Europe’s best city for business by Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker’s European Cities Monitor 2008. It is ranked the number one city in half of the 12 major areas, including access to markets, availability of qualified staff as well as international and internal transport links. The Financial Times’ Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Monitor reports that London accounts for over 7% of all investment into Europe. North America continues to represent a significant proportion of this investment.
FDI accounts for over a quarter of London’s economy – contributing over $70bn each year, and employs around 500,000 people – one in seven people working in the capital. FDI businesses are not only 60% more productive than the London average, they are also growing faster. International investors, helped by Think London over the past 10 years, have grown by 300% since setting up business in London. Overall, nearly a fifth (17%) have used their London operation as a springboard for further investment within the UK and two-fifths (40%) planned expansion in mainland Europe, highlighting that many FDI companies see London as a gateway to access UK and EU markets.
LONDON AND THE GLOBAL PROFESSIONAL
London is also good for your career. More than eight out of 10 executives believe that London is better for their career than any other major European city. Nine out of 10 say that working in London has increased their understanding of global business, improved their wider career prospects and has helped them to build valuable career networks. With nearly 20,000 overseas parented companies operating in the capital, London is truly the place to make your mark as a global professional.
THE OLYMPICS OPPORTUNITY
London is a cosmopolitan city with an outstanding sporting legacy – the perfect ingredients for staging an amazing Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012. The London 2012 Olympics will be the catalyst for transforming one of the most deprived areas in London – the Lower Lea Valley, forming part of the Thames Gateway in east London. The Olympic Park, occupying a 587-acre site in Stratford, will create Europe’s largest urban park in the form of a worldclass sporting complex. Consisting of an Olympic Stadium, Aquatics Centre, Hockey Centre, Velopark, the Olympic Village will be the driver for over $30bn in transport improvements and will generate an overall economic impact of $8bn to the capital.
The next three years will see a number of large-scale infrastructure projects realized, with the process of procuring contractors, project managers and design specialists needed for the Olympic Park already under way. Olympic-related opportunities are extensive and diverse, ranging from producing furniture to landscaping development sites; from manufacturing sports equipment to providing essential services for the athletes, spectators and the east London community as a whole. Integration of Olympic developments, with wider regeneration initiatives, present business opportunities for contractors through the construction of new mixed-use commercial and residential property.
GATEWAY TO THE WORLD
London has the best international accessibility of any city worldwide and its location at the center of the world’s time zones makes it ideally placed for global business. Uniquely, it stands at the hub of the two busiest air route systems in the world: the trans-Atlantic route and the intra-European system. London’s five international airports are the world’s busiest, handling nearly 140 million airline passengers a year with direct flights to 530 destinations worldwide. London-New York is the world’s busiest long-haul route.
As the main international entry point to Europe, London offers unrestricted access to the EU, the largest market in the world. London’s major rail stations service the whole of Great Britain, with the Eurostar at St Pancras providing direct access to Brussels and Paris in under two and a half hours. Express services also run to London’s major international airports from central London. London has the best internal transport links of any city in Europe, acting as the hub for the UK’s domestic transport network. The transport system is composed of an extensive regional rail network, 12 Underground lines, the Docklands Light Railway and over 700 bus routes, and also a radial motorway system providing easy access to the rest of the UK and the Channel ports. Around 1.1 million people enter central London during the morning peak on an average weekday – more than any other city in Europe.
WORLD-CLASS ICT INFRASTRUCTURE
Backing these world-class transport connections are London’s state-of-the-art telecommunication networks, which also mean fast, reliable contacts to the rest of the world, 24-hours a day. London was recently voted, for the 19th year running, Europe’s best city for telecommunications infrastructure by the Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker European Cities Monitor 2008.
LONDON’S KEY SECTORS
London’s strong business infrastructure provides the perfect conditions for a broad range of sectors and industries to build, grow and succeed. Creative industries; IT, telecoms and software; real estate; life sciences; financial services; retail; construction; manufacturing; oil and gas; transport and logistics; and the public sector all make up London’s business world. The opportunities London presents in some of these key sectors are outlined in more detail below.
EUROPE’S LEADING FINANCIAL CENTERLondon remains Europe’s leading financial center and the single most internationally-focused financial marketplace bar none. It holds the leading market position in activities including foreign exchange trading, cross-border trading in foreign equities, management of institutional funds, derivatives traded over the counter, Euro money market derivatives and international insurance. The more than 300,000 people employed in the financial services sector in London represent a third of all those working in the sector in the UK, and conduct over half of all of the EU’s investment banking and related business. One of the world’s top two legal centers, London is also a leading international center for management consulting, with total fee income reaching $8.4bn. London’s professional service businesses are among the most innovative in the world and have led the way in terms of global service provision. Almost 800,000 people in the UK are employed in a diverse array of professional service activities, offering constant and immediate access to a highly-developed and internationally-focused network, including lawyers, accountants, management consultants and other business expertise.
EUROPE’S LARGEST ICT MARKETLondon’s IT sector is the largest in Europe. Companies in London have access to a pool of 540,000 experienced IT professionals and technology graduates, and the London ICT market (including software and services) offers the largest concentration of companies anywhere in Europe, with the cluster contributing $12.4bn to London’s economy. The top 25 software and services suppliers all have a presence in London – including Accenture, Cap Gemini, Ernst & Young, CSC, EDS, Compaq, IBM, Fujitsu, KPMG, Microsoft, Oracle and Atos Origin. The UK is Europe’s most liberalized, competitive and dynamic telecoms market. London has attracted the world’s major telecommunications operators, service providers and manufacturers. The market is both broad and diverse, with new sub-sectors developing as technological strides are made.
THE CREATIVE CAPITAL OF EUROPE
London is one of the world’s greatest creative cities, synonymous with music, art, fashion, film, radio, television, architecture, performing arts, literature and design. London is the creative capital of Europe and accounts for 57% of all UK jobs in the creative sector, acting as a magnet for top-talent across the world. London’s creative industries employ over 550,000 people, 12% of the workforce, and generate $38bn annually. London’s film industry alone has an annual turnover of around $24bn, and is the largest postproduction center outside of Los Angeles. Of the top 15 grossing films of the last decade, no fewer than five were made in and around London.
A VIBRANT RETAIL SECTOR
London’s creative energy, cosmopolitan feel and tourist shoppers attracted by the favorable exchange rate create great opportunities for ambitious retailers. London has some of the most famous shopping areas on the planet – Bond Street, Regent Street, Oxford Street, Portobello Road, Savile Row, Knightsbridge and South Kensington. With over 40,000 shops, London retailing operates on a very diverse scale – from high-class boutiques to fashion chains, from mass-market superstores to entire shopping malls. Employing 375,000 people, London’s retail sector is the largest in Europe and contributes over $24bn to London’s economy.
BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE
London boasts £40bn of confirmed developments across the city – with landmarks already completed including: Wembley Stadium, Heathrow Terminal 5 and 30 St Mary’s Axe (the Gherkin). Major construction projects are underway throughout the city, spearheaded by the 2012 Olympics and Stratford City development. . The construction sector employs 200,000 people, representing around 5% (or $15bn) of London’s economy. Additionally, 14,000 students are studying subjects linked to the built environment at London’s universities and over 55,000 are employed in architecture and engineering in the capital.
A SUSTAINABLE WORLD CITY
London is working to become a world leader in environmental and climate change issues, and has the highest energy-efficiency standards of any city in the UK. The Mayor’s Climate Change Action Plan sets out strategies to stabilize London’s emissions at about 600 million tonnes – 60% below 1990 levels – by 2025. The UK environmental technology industry is the world’s fifth largest, comprising more than 17,000 companies and 400,000 workers. A fifth of its $45bn turnover is exported. The UK market for environmental consulting, monitoring and instrumentation is predicted to be worth more than $3.4bn by 2010.
Four of the top 13 environmental consultancies are headquartered in London; ERM, Scott Wilson, White Young Green Environmental and WSP Environmental. Think London can help international companies bring their experience and technology to bear in London and provides excellent contacts with environmental bodies, service providers and research expertise such as London Remade, London Waste Action, The London Development Agency along with London’s universities, which provide an important cluster on all environmental issues.
A MAGNET FOR TOP TALENT
London offers regional labor pool of over nine million – the largest regional workforce in Europe. For the 19th year running, the Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker European Cities Monitor 2008 has highlighted London as the best city in Europe to locate a business in terms of access to qualified staff. It also consistently ranks as the world’s richest labor force for language skills, with onequarter of the population born overseas. London is recognized as a world center of excellence for research and education, with one of the largest critical masses of educational and academic facilities anywhere in the world. Over 380,000 students are studying at London’s higher education institutions, with 83,580 overseas nationals, including 5,238 American students.
WHAT THINK LONDON CAN DO FOR YOU
- We show you what London offers your business, and we connect you to it;
- We know London inside out. We find the best people, places and opportunities for your business
- We understand the different relocation issues of a multinational company and a business start-up, and we tailor our service to meet the needs of both
- We help at every stage of the process – from your initial enquiry to your first few months in London. And it won’t cost you anything
- We connect you to our business networks so you can learn from companies that are already established in London
- We make sure you have all the information you need to make the best decisions for your business – we’ll give you sectorspecific analysis, contacts and advice
- We do everything we can to help your business succeed and grow in London.
For more information on Think London contact:
Nick Royle
Deputy Director North America
Tel: +44 (20) 7718 5423
E-mail: nroyle@thinklondon.com
Matthew Cross
Vice-President East Coast
E-mail: mcross@thinklondon.com
Richard Stanaro
Director North America
Tel: + 1 415 439 8336
E-mail: rstanaro@thinklondon.com
Website: www.thinklondon.com
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