Building London, Building BritainJune 3, 2013
Today, London First has published ‘Building London, Building Britain’, a new report that analyses the economic impact of construction activity within central London on the wider UK. Most notably, it found that construction work in central London generates twice the economic benefits – and supports almost twice as many jobs – outside London as it does in the capital.
The study, conducted by PwC, analysed the confidential proprietary data of nine of the city’s principal developers that agreed to take part in this work – Canary Wharf, Cadogan, Great Portland Estates, British Land, King’s Cross Central Limited Partnership, Grosvenor, Land Securities, Derwent and The Crown Estate.
Key findings include:
- Central London office developments annually contribute £1.7bn of Gross Value Add (GVA, a measure of output like GDP) and 34,600 jobs to the UK economy.
- More than half of this annual output is outside London – £1.1bn of GVA and 22,400 jobs per year.
- Around 84% of direct expenditure on central London office development remains in the UK economy.
- There is potential for development to generate further economic benefits for the UK, by increasing capability in goods and services that the UK currently lacks, such as cladding, lifts and machinery.