Tired of London: Why is the capital losing hope?
City dwellers tend to be more optimistic about their neighbourhood than those who live in town but, worryingly, London is bucking the trend. We all have a stake in our capital’s success. So what’s going wrong? Asks Simon Clarke
“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life”. Samuel Johnson’s famous aphorism has echoed down the ages. Except, it seems, many of us are indeed tired of London.
Onward’s upcoming report, Love Thy Neighbour, examines the relationship between our towns and cities. Speaking to thousands of people with our partners at Focaldata, we found residents of Britain’s towns are significantly more pessimistic about the place where they live, while city dwellers tend to be more positive. But London, alongside Birmingham, bucked the trend. The majority of Londoners said their city has declined in the last five years, and they don’t see it changing for the better in the future.
This should make us all pause. London doesn’t matter just to Londoners alone. It’s the engine of our national prosperity. We all have a stake in our capital’s success. So what’s going wrong?
First, the economy. The Centre for Cities reported recently how London has gone from being the leader of UK productivity before the financial crisis to the laggard, falling from a pre-2007 average of 3.1 per cent annual growth to a measly 0.2 per cent since. We need a strategy to support the City and boost the attractiveness of the Stock Exchange, currently at a generational low.
Crumbling infrastructure
It also means we need to look at how we improve our crumbling infrastructure – probably combined with a plan to capture some of the increase in land value arising from major public investment. In 2018, TFL told parliament that methodology prepared by KPMG and Savills estimated that eight prospective transport projects in London, including Crossrail 2 and the Bakerloo line extension, could generate a land value uplift of £87bn.
We also need to bring life back to London. Between 2020 and 2023, over 3000 night economy businesses closed their doors. Fighting back against unfair restrictions on licensing hours and restoring some of the innovative easements we saw during the pandemic, like pavement dining, could help to reverse Covid scarring.
Second, housing. Rents in London increased by a record 11.6 per cent in the year to November, to an average of £2,200 per home. People of all ages, but especially the young, are being priced out of anywhere to live. We don’t need disastrous rent controls: we need more homes. The Mayor’s record on housing is abysmal. Over the decade 2013-23, London saw new dwelling completions fall by 0.3 per cent each year – by contrast, the North West saw an average annual increase of 10 per cent. The time for excuses is over. City Hall and London councils need to take advantage of the government’s planning reforms to put real people’s lives ahead of campaigns to protect carparks, golf courses and snooker clubs. We also need a parallel focus on densification and building upwards.
City Hall and London councils need to take advantage of the government’s planning reforms to put real people’s lives ahead of campaigns to protect carparks, golf courses and snooker clubs
Third, crime. Of all the places Onward surveyed, London had the third highest share of residents who thought tackling crime and antisocial behaviour should be a top three priority, preceded by two towns – Dewsbury near Leeds and Blaydon near Newcastle. This mirrors findings by Savanta for the Centre for London that 42 per cent of Londoners don’t feel safe walking in their local area (rising to 50 per cent among women). Some forms of crime are out of control. A mobile phone was stolen every five minutes in London in 2023, with over 115,000 thefts. Twenty thousand bicycles are stolen a year in the city. Policing strategies which respond to this are imperative to restore confidence, and campaigns like the excellent “Crush Crime” are leading the way.
London can be the greatest city on earth again. There’s much to do. Let’s get to work.
Simon Clarke is the Director of Onward, the centre-right thinktank