Is London Finished? | IEA Podcast

About this episode

The episode discusses the challenges facing London's economy, including productivity decline and tax policy proposals.

In this Institute of Economic Affairs podcast, Editorial Director Kristian Niemietz is joined by Senior Policy Fellow Lord Frost and Managing Editor Daniel Freeman to discuss three stories dominating British economic debate. The conversation covers a Financial Times investigation into London’s slowing growth and falling productivity, the Government’s cost of living announcements including tariff cuts and VAT reductions, and Wes Streeting’s proposal to align capital gains tax with income tax rates — a policy he has chosen to brand a “wealth tax.” On London, the panel picks apart the drivers behind the city’s decline: housing supply restrictions, a 71% marginal tax rate hitting high earners with student loans, the exodus of non-doms, and the post-pandemic shift away from office working. Daniel highlights that American tech firms now describe London’s talent pool as cheap relative to San Francisco, a back-handed compliment that has become the city’s chief selling point. Lord Frost raises the possibility that productive people are leaving while less productive arrivals replace them, and argues for decentralisation over national top-down fixes, pointing to Switzerland as a model for…

People in this episode

Host: Kristian Niemietz

Guests: Lord Frost, Daniel Freeman

Topics covered

• British economy
• London's growth
• cost of living
• tax policy
• decentralisation
• productivity

Keywords

• London
• economic debate
• productivity
• cost of living
• tax rates
• decentralisation
• housing supply

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Financial Times, Government

Places: London, Switzerland, San Francisco

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