Why it's time to unshackle London and let it boom again

The rich are fleeing, the City is haemorrhaging listings — and it’s down to years of political neglect.

- By Jonathan Prynn

It is close to 40 years since the Big Bang reforms of London's financial markets transformed the City forever. A relatively technical programme of Thatcherite deregulation - the abolition of fixed commissions and the end of the separation of brokers and jobbers on the London Stock Exchange - opened the floodgates to a deluge of foreign capital and talent that lifted the tired old city affectionately known as ‘The Smoke.

Much of what we now associate with modern London, for good and for ill — the sky-high property prices, the gleaming towers of Docklands and the Square Mile, the unrecognisably improved restaurant scene, the world leadership position in exciting industries such as fintech — can be traced back to that bold Big Bang moment in October 1986.

Yet now London seems to be going backwards. Not so much a reverse Big Bang as a slow slump, the proverbial balloon that is gradually losing its air. London is arguably suffering its biggest drain of talent and capital since the 1970s — and the warning signs are everywhere.

The world’s wealthy who flocked to London for its unrivalled lifestyle over decades are now, often reluctantly and sadly, calling it a day.

We have been warned about the risk of an exodus from London many times before — notably after Brexit — and thankfully it has always turned out to be a false alarm. Ultimately the appeal of London always trumped the charms of Geneva, Paris or Frankfurt.