British Land executive Roger Madelin has warned that a leave vote in the EU referendum would send the UK and London into economic decline.
Madelin, who is leading the development of a 46-acre Canada Water site, said a leave vote would dissuade international talent from working in the city. The city’s ability to attract talent was the most important factor in London’s success over the past 20 years, he said.
“If you put a sign up that says ‘you are not welcome’, however big that sign is, however bright it is lit, the thing that has made London grow, which is the thing that has made the UK economy grow, will be stopped,” he said at CBRE’s global London breakfast panel event.
“If you think London growth is just going to carry on and that we are going to be a successful country, go to Berlin, or find a recent graduate who has recently gone to Berlin and is staying in Berlin because it has the same time zone, English is spoken and it’s actually an amazing city for young bright people,” he added.
Nick Turner, founding and managing partner of Statforma, agreed that a leave vote would send the “wrong signal” to the rest of the world, but believed we would vote to stay in.
“It’s the sentiment and the signal that it sends in terms of the intentions of this country and the way that we look to the broader world. We are basically saying, ‘We don’t want to engage’,” he said. “It is about nimbyism, it is about closed doors, rather than about openness.”
Triuva’s chief executive officer Wenzel Hoberg, who is originally from Berlin, said the rest of Europe was “incredibly worried” about the impact of a Brexit in potentially encouraging other countries to leave the EU.
He added: “I believe you will vote for an exit. I have not heard a single person being positive about Europe since I have lived here.”
Failure to attract global talent, adverse global economic conditions and insularity were three major global risks to London’s economy identified by CBRE’s head of UK research Miles Gibson.
However, he said, London would still face all of those risks whether it is in or out of the EU.
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