Reinventing London

Bridget Rosewell was the Chief Economist and Chief Economic Adviser to the Greater London Authority between 2002 and 2012.

London has enjoyed an extraordinary period of growth in the past generation, symbolized by the towers of Canary Wharf built on the skeleton of the old docks. Finance was at the heart of this, so how can London’s economy be reinvented after the financial crisis? Success will depend on several factors that must go together: growing service sectors in addition to finance; making it possible for the people who work in London to live there in pleasant and affordable surroundings; and investing in communications and transport links. This must include an early decision on airport investment to improve global links, given that the capital’s main airport is full to capacity  – where the extra capacity is located is less important than starting work on expansion as soon as possible.

Bridget Rosewell combines the past with the present to tell the fascinating story behind London’s dynamism and details the economic policies that are needed if London’s next reinvention is to succeed. — Dr Gerard Lyons, Chief Economic Adviser to Boris Johnson, Mayor of London

This book is a welcome contribution to the debate about the future of London, one of the world’s major economic clusters. Rosewell is right to focus on infrastructure as a major factor for growth – and potential decline. — Professor John Van Reenen, Director of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics

A fascinating, insightful and highly readable analysis of how London’s economy has changed dramatically and, crucially, for the better during the past thirty years. Rosewell advocates persuasively what is now necessary by way of key infrastructural investments to keep the UK capital city’s extraordinarily favourable expansion going. — Ian Harwood, Global Economist at Redburn Partners

Click the link below to listen to Bridget Rosewell being interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam at the Festival of Economics.

Bridget Rosewell on Cities

And click the link below to read a review of the book by Susan Parham on the LSE Review of Books website.

LSE Review of Books review of Reinventing London