Since getting interested in the city’s planning procedures in recent years, I have tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to understand how the City operates.  So, I was pleased to read a relatively straightforward account of it in this morning’s FT by Patrick Jenkins who obviously knows and understands it inside out.

The odd thing is that the more I read how wonderfully the City is doing and how robust the demand for new office space, the more it has the opposite effect, making me wonder if the City is actually anxious about losing its global authority.

I walk and bicycle through the City quite often and it doesn’t feel as Peter Rees describes it, like a honey pot, but actually a touch deserted for a lot of the week.  Many of the new office developments are putting shops, restaurants and gyms indoors.  Yet they go on knocking the old City down, making it look more and more like Hong Kong.

Maybe this is the right strategy, but I am not totally convinced by all the PR.

See:-

Undemocratic, anachronistic, fantastic. How the City of London survives – https://on.ft.com/3VISBIs via @FT