London enjoys sunny moment in long rivalry with New York

AFTER are cent trip to London, veteran New York Post real estate journalist Steve Cuozzo wrote that London was “clobbering the Big Apple” with its regeneration and infrastructure delivery.

- Alexander Jan

And get this: he even marvelled at the “swift progress” of our major developments and the “relatively smooth and rancour-free” approval processes, compared with New York’s tortuous zoning system.

This was perhaps all the more remarkable given that much commentary and analysis leaves the impression that London — battered by Brexit, Covid, runaway inflation, interest rate hikes and a housing and productivity crisis — is fighting for its future on the global stage. Are critics correct to be pessimistic about London’s prospects or is Mr Cuozzo right?

For starters, it is worth recognising some big differences. New York’s $1 trillion (£800 billion) economy is about 40% bigger than London’s. It enjoys higher productivity growth underpinned by the size of its financial services industry. The recent earnings season reminded us just how much more quickly the Big Apple’s banking sector is growing.