Infrastructure investment in London and the UK at large has attracted significant global interest and the growing need for infrastructure development to accommodate a rapidly expanding population – particularly in London – presents key investment opportunities.
To maximise investment, however, we must start looking at London as a metropolis with 20 million people today – a population that is expected to rise to 24 million people by 2036.
Andrew Jones, AECOM’s practice leader of design, planning and economics, said: “We have Central London where a great deal of investment is focused, then suburban Greater London much of which is underperforming, then we hit the Green Belt and the wider the South East towns and cities.
“All those pieces in the City Region work together as a kind of eco-system – one can’t thrive without the other.”
Launching the 2050 London Infrastructure Plan last year, the Mayor was right to warn that London risks losing its position among elite cities without a major programme of infrastructure investment to allow the capital to continue to operate efficiently.
However, Boris Johnson’s plan only covers the area for which he is responsible – Greater London. In reality, London is a global-scale city stretching in all directions from central London far beyond the M25, London’s orbital motorway, and one that is by definition increasingly economically, socially and culturally connected.
A comprehensive plan that covers the entire region, therefore, must address transport, utilities, energy, communications and flooding infrastructure as well as homes, employment locations, education and healthcare facilities, and green infrastructure – all of the essential components that contribute to the efficient running of the London City Region.
The UK needs to attract and retain institutional and international investors, whose main criterion is that the returns are right – not just the geographical location of the investment – and to keep both London and the UK at the top of investors’ attention and interest.
The UK is clearly already an attractive location for international and institutional investors. With better integration of these projects and clearer identification of the benefits, London and the UK would improve their attractiveness to global investors as the UK’s competition takes similar steps to attract a greater share of the global infrastructure investment pie.
Our future prosperity, not just in London but in the whole of the UK, depends on it.