29 Feb, 2008
London looking less attractive to financial services professionals
Posted by: Lance In: News
According to this story in today’s Financial Times, a global survey of financial industry workers has found that New York is overtaking London as the world’s financial capital. The nationalisation of Northern Rock and government plans to clamp down on tax-breaks for wealthy foreigners were cited as the two main reasons for the city’s declining status.
The survey was commissioned by the City of London Corporation, which obviously has a vested interest in bringing as much foreign month into the city as possible, so it’s no surprise that the findings fit nicely with their own agenda.
I’m not sure how I feel about this. London has always been a centre of international commerce, and obviously that contributes a lot of wealth to the city and the entire country, which is probably a good thing. On the other hand, these days I can’t help thinking that the city is entirely dominated by the financial services sector, to the detriment of the rest of its inhabitants. I can’t help thinking that unless you’re earning big bucks from the financial services industry, you’d be mad to live here because you’ll never afford a decent quality of life.
Mind you, it’s still better than living in the midlands…
