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Comment: The top city
Evening Standard Comment21 Feb 2008
A new study that reveals that the City's hard-won lead over Wall Street is shrinking should worry everyone from the Chancellor downwards. London remains at the head of the Global Financial Centres index compiled for the City Corporation, judged on factors ranging from the supply of skilled workers to the tax regime but its lead over New York has halved since the autumn. Nothing can take away London's advantages, including its time zone and language. Together with the attractions of a deregulated stock market and labour market, these outweigh high living costs and poor transport for many corporations.
However, competition for footloose capital and the people who manage it never stops. The City's reputation was damaged by Northern Rock because the episode exposed failings - stemming in part from EU disclosure requirements - in banking supervision. As for the non-dom tax proposals, the Government's own minister Digby Jones has admitted the prospect had alarmed overseas investors. The Chancellor's partial about-turn will not have removed all their concerns.
The City's role in Britain's economic future can hardly be overemphasised. Its success is crucial to London staying ahead as a world city - the subject of an Evening Standard debate this Monday. If, as many senior City figures now feel, Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown have jeopardised London's competitive position, the repercussions will be wide and damaging.
