Policy 2.1 London in its global, European and United Kingdom context

Strategic

A The Mayor and the GLA Group will, and all other strategic agencies should, ensure:

a that London retains and extends its global role as a sustainable centre for business, innovation, creativity, health, education and research, culture and art and as a place to live, visit and enjoy; and

b that the development of London supports the spatial, economic, environmental and social development of Europe and the United Kingdom, in particular ensuring that London plays a distinctive and supportive part in the UK’s network of cities.

B The Mayor will continue to seek appropriate resources and investment from Government and elsewhere to ensure London excels among world cities and as the major gateway to Europe and the UK.

2.6 Throughout its history, London has been a city that has had to face the world and take account of developments far beyond its borders. This openness to global change will continue to be essential if the vision and objectives outlined in this Plan are to be delivered.

2.7 London is a world city with a role in the global economy rivalled only by New York. As such, it fulfils functions and attracts investment that other cities in the United Kingdom – and in Europe – do not. It has a distinctive role to play in the spatial development of the country and continent as part of a polycentric network of cities and urban areas, and the Mayor recognises the importance of ensuring London does this in ways that promote sustainable success at European, national and city region level. He recognises the importance of this to the continued prosperity and well-being of London and its people.

2.8 The vision and objectives set out in this Plan support the European Union’s Growth and Jobs Strategy aimed at ensuring Europe has the most competitive, knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010 and the emerging Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth that will replace it. London will have a major part to play as one of the continent’s most important global gateways. This Plan also adopts the key concepts outlined in the European Spatial Development Perspective – an approach to spatial planning and development promoting economic and social cohesion and balanced and sustainable development, particularly through ‘polycentric urban systems’^[1], coordinated approaches to transport and communications and management of natural and cultural heritage to help conserve regional identity and cultural diversity in the face of globalisation.

2.9 London forms part of North West Europe, along with Paris and the Ile de France, the Randstadt cities (like Amsterdam and Rotterdam) in the Netherlands, Brussels and the Rhine/Ruhr cities like Essen or Dortmund. These cities face common challenges, such as economic changes, community cohesion, infrastructure investment and delivery and local and global environmental threats. While the Spatial Vision for North West Europe prepared by the North West Europe Interreg IIIB Spatial Vision Working Group highlights London as one of the pivotal centres of the world economy, it also identifies the London area as a ‘bottleneck’ to cross-Europe movement, reinforcing the importance of improving transport infrastructure around and within the capital. The Mayor will support joint work and strategies to help meet these challenges, in particular looking to national governments and European institutions for help in addressing strategic transport issues such as ways of moving international through-traffic around London, instead of through it. Heathrow is currently the UK’s only hub airport, and the Mayor recognises its critical importance to the London economy and the central place which it plays in London’s international competitiveness and status as a world city. The Mayor is also supporting joint work to address the challenges climate change poses to Europe’s cities, particularly the role of green infrastructure.

2.10 London’s success is inextricably bound up with that of the United Kingdom as a whole. It has unique economic specialisation in fields such as finance, business and law that are not, and could not be, replicated anywhere else in the country. As the nation’s capital, it is a centre for Government, law and administration. It has a leading role in the UK’s visitor economy, as a gateway to the rest of the country. Overall, it makes a substantial contribution to national prosperity (for example, by making a substantial net contribution to the rest of the UK through taxation). The Mayor strongly supports working with the other nations, cities and regions within the UK to help ensure that London’s success supports that of the country as a whole, and that it makes its proper contribution to a sustainable and balanced polycentric network of core cities.

2.11 This Plan will make a significant contribution to this through its overall strategy of seeking to accommodate the substantial population and economic growth expected over the period to 2036 within the current boundaries of Greater London. But, as the Mayor has pointed out in his 2020 Vision, this will only be possible on the basis of proper investment in the social and physical infrastructure needed to support growth sustainably, and through agreement with authorities and agencies at European, national, Londonwide and local levels to ensure resources are used wisely and effectively. The Mayor will continue to make the case for investment in London so it can continue to make its contribution to sustainable development at all these levels.

^[1] European Commission. A Spatial Vision for North West Europe. EC, 2000. European Commission. European Spatial Development Directive. EC, 1999. Hall P, Pain K. The Polycentric Metropolis. Learning from mega-city regions in Europe. Earthscan, 2006