London First is calling on both national and regional government to improve London’s infrastructure to cope with the city’s burgeoning workforce.
Baroness Jo Valentine has been the organisation’s chief executive since 2003, and recalls the changes that have occurred since its inception.
“London First was created in the early 90s when there was no London government, so we were in between the GLC [Greater London Council] and the GLA [Greater London Authority] and it was created to get senior business people together to think about the strategic challenges for London and ways of addressing them.
“The things that were particularly on their mind in the early 90s coming out of recession was how down at heel London felt. It’s difficult to imagine that but in the early 90s it felt like it was down and going down further,” she says.
Over the last 20 years the organisation has been focused on making London’s voice heard and was prominent in campaigning for the mayoralty, which Baroness Valentine considers an important development for the city.
“We campaigned in the 90s for the creation of the mayoralty, because we felt a political champion for London was the only way to get some of the things we wanted done.
“And we have been pleased with both Ken [Livingstone] and Boris [Johnson], that they have both in their different ways been a very effective political champion.”
Although the organisation is keen to trumpet London’s progress over the last two decades, it also warns that significant improvements in infrastructure are needed going forward.
Having led London First for over ten years Baroness Valentine is all too aware of how difficult securing vital change can be.
“You have to think of London as a country, it is as big as many countries and so actually it is a bit like moving an oil tanker. You can do lots of things which have little good effects but actually things that really make a strategic impact on the city are tough to achieve,” she says.
The group is concerned that under the current regime there is an emerging discrepancy between the infrastructure needs of the capital and the funding available to decision makers.
Baroness Valentine argues that “you actually need the Mayor to have some money of his own ultimately. So, our Mayor goes to central government with a begging bowl in effect, [whereas] the New York Mayor actually has around 50% of his own taxes… Real power comes with distributing money.”
Although the solution, she argues, is more complex than simply granting the same economic autonomy enjoyed by New York politicians to the GLA.
As London heads for a population increase of 10 million over the next 15 years it is crucial, Baroness Valentine says, “to get a sustainable rate of investment that actually supports that population growth. And obviously that is actually a bit challenging at a time when national government is stretched for funds.
“So, our position would be to national government: look, either you put in place a means where you can keep investing at the sort of rate that you need to invest for that number of people… or you have to start delegating some of this power of money to the mayor and say to him look, this is your problem…
“But you can’t do neither, you have to do one or the other.”
One of the biggest challenges for the capital, which London First has prioritised in its pre-election Manifesto for Jobs and Growth, is transport.
The organisation would like to see the city’s transport capacity improved consistently in line with population projections.
Airport connectivity should be central to London’s transport policy, Baroness Valentine argues, as London is “possibly the most global city in the world.”
London First recently spent a year preparing an Economic Development Agenda for London, jointly with the GLA, during which it consulted over 400 stakeholders in the public, private and voluntary sector and analysed economic data.
The research found that London “has more international subsidiaries than any other country in the world. It has more international visitors than any other country in the world. It has more international students than any other country in the world.
“We are very global and if one understands that that is what our distinctiveness is about then air connectivity becomes extremely important,” Baroness Valentine says.
The UK already has good connectivity to the “the old markets,” which include the US, Hong Kong and parts of India. Where air capacity could be improved, she says, is in providing better links between the UK and the emerging economies, as they “are going to account for more than half of global growth within a decade.”
Concerns closer to the ground focus on rail travel as an important transport solution for London’s expanding workforce.
London First is urging the Government to maintain momentum on Crossrail 2 and to make a commitment to continued investment in the London underground.
On road transport, the organisation would like to see improvements in London’s roads, but also recognises that “roads are never going to be sufficient to the sorts of numbers of people that we have got,” according to Baroness Valentine.
She says: “I would do much more sophisticated road pricing. I would do it the whole way out to the M25, certainly out to the North and South circular.”
The organisation would also like to see similarly ambitious promises on the capital’s other infrastructure priority, housing.
Tackling the housing shortage will require urgent steps, the group suggests, including more powers for the Mayor and the GLA in order to deliver the desired 50,000 homes per year.
There needs to be a “step change, increasing housing to really start digging into this problem,” Baroness Valentine says.
Also high on London First’s agenda is the UK’s relationship with Europe.
Considering London’s position as a global trading centre with more international subsidiaries than any other city in the world “anything which is unhelpful in our relationship with the rest of Europe they regard as unhelpful,” according to Baroness Valentine.
“So, they want to use this base as a way to business with the whole of Europe and the more we can help them with that the better,” she adds.
The group’s position on immigration is similar, in that they favour promoting what best serves London’s business community, its economy and the city as a whole.
It is important for companies, Baroness Valentine says, “for our borders to be porous for highly talented people… and the more the wheels are oiled to enable that the better.”
She is concerned about the current system for obtaining tourist visas, which she fears may be hampering the UK’s lucrative tourism industry.
It is “all pretty clunky at the moment,” she says.
Baroness Valentine also argues that international students should not be included in the Government’s net migration cap.
“We want to nurture the world class universities we have… and we want the best talent from around the world to come to those universities and go back and do business with us in the future.”
London First’s stance on tax is similarly firm. They opposed the 50% rate which Baroness Valentine says sent an “unhelpful signal internationally that we are a high tax economy,” and are equally hostile to the ‘mansion tax’.
“It is a rather clumsy vehicle,” she says, but adds that she would be “very happy to have a conversation around council tax bands and about revaluing properties so that it is all done fairly...”
“We are against knee-jerk wealth taxes.”
London First’s main focus is to raise the issues that affect the capital now and in the future, and as the general election approaches they hope to build on past achievements and set the agenda for the next government, whoever it may be.