Responding to the Prime Minister’s speech at Labour Party Conference, John Dickie, Chief Executive at BusinessLDN, said:
“The Prime Minister’s pledge to ‘unleash British enterprise, strip out bad regulation and confront the blockers that strangle the private sector’ is a great signal of intent.
“The Government now needs to turn ambition into action so businesses have the confidence required to invest, create jobs and grow. The Autumn Budget will be an acid test – tough decisions now that boost jobs and growth can boost living standards this parliament.
“The Prime Minister is right to highlight the need for greater investment in other parts of the country: this is essential to improving opportunity and living standards across Britain. But we can’t be complacent about London. London represents a quarter of the UK economy and is a growth powerhouse for the whole country.
“Investment into London spreads across Britain. We need to remove the barriers that are holding London’s growth back. That means reforming regulation to make it less onerous on business in general and, in particular, easier, quicker and less costly to get infrastructure and housing built; tackling the cost of living in London which makes it increasingly difficult to retain staff, whether key workers or people at the start of their careers; and gripping crime – and the perceptions of crime – which are making investors wary of the capital.