The City of London Corporation has committed to working alongside the new Burnham government to deliver sustainable economic growth across the United Kingdom.
Prime Minister Burnham’s Cabinet inherits a significant set of challenges, including regional inequality, stretched public finances, sluggish productivity, and flatlining living standards.
Early government moves, including a business rates cut, energy VAT cut, and bus fare cap, signal a willingness to act on the cost of living and support the hospitality sector.
The Prime Minister’s promise of the biggest council house building programme since the post-war period, alongside a wider devolution drive, signals an ambition to get Britain building again.
However, these spending decisions in isolation will not move the dial on growth without the right structural conditions for business investment.
Financial and professional services support around 2.5 million jobs across the UK, with two-thirds of those roles located outside the capital, making it a national rather than purely London story.
Growth depends on a stable and competitive tax system, streamlined planning, and proportionate regulation that gives businesses the confidence to invest long term.
The City Corporation recently published a report with Digital Wholesale Market Champion Chris Woolard, showing how the UK could benefit from a £33bn boost by accelerating plans for tokenised markets.
The City Corporation looks forward to working with the new Chancellor John Healey, and notes that under his leadership at the Ministry of Defence, numerous roundtables on defence financing were hosted together.
Britain’s international ambitions must match its domestic ones, with strengthening trade ties through a meaningful EU Summit, expanding worldwide investment opportunities, and maintaining a balanced relationship with China among the key priorities.
In recent years, the City Corporation has worked alongside government through the Mansion House reforms, the Office for Investment: Financial Services, the Sterling 20 initiative, and the Transition Finance Council.
As Chris Hayward, policy chairman at the City of London Corporation, puts it, good growth will only come to every postcode when policymakers and industry work together to unlock investment and raise productivity.
The challenges facing Britain are too great for government or business to tackle alone, making genuine partnership between the two not a luxury but an absolute necessity.