On track after the Games

On track after the Games The London Olympics were a resounding success, but now it’s all over, what are the tangible benefits for the capital? Tony Travers, director of the Greater London Group, LSE: The tangible benefits are the radically improved urban environment of what used to be Stratford railway land. In the normal way of doing things, it might have taken 50 or 60 years, but has been done in five or six. It’s not to be underestimated. We are only just starting to see that what has happened in Stratford is a miracle. Dan Bayley, head of central London, BNP Paribas Real Estate: I am struggling to think of anything tangible so far. There is talk about a big Chinese investment organisation looking at the Royal Docks. That can only have been helped by the Olympics. We would have loved it if some chief exec had had a great day and decided “we must move our business to Stratford”, but it doesn’t work like that. Baroness Valentine, chief economist, London First: Businesses and boroughs have also had to learn to do things differently. Longer Sunday opening hours, night-time deliveries – those sorts of things. During the Olympics, Heathrow had operational freedoms, allowing both runways to be used for landing and take-off. That’s going to go on until March and I think that’s a great idea. There has been huge physical transformation – from Stratford to Leicester Square and Oxford Circus, and the legible London maps in zone 1 – which allow you to wander around London and know where you are and where you can get to in 10 minutes. Nigel Kempner, executive director, Qunitain: The tangible benefits remain to be seen. It has added to international interest. People are more aware of our Greenwich site and of Wembley. But I couldn’t put hand on heart and say that it has tangibly worked to the advantage of our properties. There are record office rents on the cards in Mayfair and yet the economy continues to stutter. What shape is London really in? Trevor Williams, chief economist, Lloyds Banking Group: London outperforms. If the UK was flat, then London is clearly growing. Then there are bits of London that show even faster growth. High rents are a sign that it still remains vibrant. People want to be here and do business here. BV: London seems, throughout the double dip, to have never gone into recession. There has been this story of foreign capital coming into London. Domestic demand has probably been flatter. NK: Despite banker-bashing, there has been healthy demand in the City. The West End has been a much more difficult supply-led problem. There is a lot of pressure every time a decently located property comes onto the market.London is in pretty good shape generally. Headhunters appear to be much busier. On the TMT side, London seems to be the place of choice for HQs in Europe. That brings in a whole new dynamic – with people working in those industries wanting to live in close proximity to where they work. TT: The inner and central London economy continues to benefit from a significant inflow of hot capital. There are more cranes than you would expect for a city in a country that has suffered four years of economic stagnation.Parts of outer London are much less economically buoyant and in need of continuing attention. Outer London now has more of what used to be regarded as inner-London-type problems. Croydon has plans for regeneration, Park Royal is a massive opportunity, never realised. Haringey and Waltham Forest desperately need economic and other attention. Does the potential for a record rent in Mayfair show that London’s success is very much weighted in the West and the East has had its moment in the spotlight? DB: If you could have a little pinpoint for the centre of office employment in London, you’d find it has moved gradually to the East. There is loads of stock there, and there is additional stock as you go east, where small industrial land is reclaimed for modern business uses. Simon Francis, workplace resources manager, Nokia: The West End is most likely always going to command high rental levels. But the West End doesn’t get all the action all the time. I think the East has had positive periods, but I am not convinced that they are necessarily related to the Olympics. TT: It’s going to take a very, very long time to tilt the axis of London away from the West. There won’t be as much money going into the East for some time to come. There will be a strong sense in politics that the East has done well on the investment side. The future of the airport is the big unknown. If there is a third runway, that will further reinforce West London’s dominance. If Heathrow was downgraded substantially to build a massive new hub to the east, that would have a revolutionary effect. It would be like the docks shutting in the East. BV: I think that is a bit like saying all the growth is in China and forgetting there is a massive economy in America. There’s a massive economy in the west of the city. What is interesting is bringing the East End up to the same economic health as the rest of town.