On Thursday morning, Mayor Sadiq Khan announced the London Growth Plan which is being set out to restore productivity growth to an average of two per cent a year in the next decade. According to City Hall, it is reported that London’s economy could be £107 billion larger by 2035.
This ‘turbocharge’ plan for economic growth claims that it could an extra pre-tax average of £11,000 in each Londoner’s pocket. Yep, you read that correctly.
The 104-page strategy additionally outlined investment in housing and infrastructure which includes the extensions to the Bakerloo line, DLR and Overground and for the surrounding suburban rail services to be delegated to Transport for London (TfL).
The City Hall data shares that while London’s productivity saw an average growth of 3.16 per cent each year between 1998 and 2007 – this plummeted and was hugely damaged by the 2008 financial crash meaning that between then and 2022, the rate had dropped to just 0.12 per cent a year.
Bleak we know, but, all hope’s not lost. The data also reportedly suggests that if London is able to achieve the plan’s target and manages to increase its economy by £107bn – this could contribute to the city by an extra £27.5bn in taxes to the Treasury in 2035 which would then be invested in public services.
The plan’s figure of £11,000 of extra pre-tax income for every Londoner comes from dividing the targeted £107bn rise by London’s population of 8.95 million.
This strategy also sets out Sir Sadiq Khan’s ambition to create 150,000 new jobs and also states a commitment to boost “industrial innovation corridors” in different parts of London. This includes the WestTech Corridor, which runs between White City and Old Oak and Park Royal; the UK Innovation Corridor, extending north from the King’s Cross ‘Knowledge Quarter’ towards Cambridge; and the Thames Estuary, beginning at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and reaching into Essex and Kent.
