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Part 6 - London, the Global City

  • Writer: Sam Knight
    Sam Knight
  • Jun 1, 2019
  • 6 min read

Updated: Jun 21, 2019

The narrative of London being a global city has meant that the Government has prioritised London’s needs over the rest of the country (Toly, 2017, pp.144), this includes deciding where to invest in rail infrastructure. Although London’s status as a global city may be a material fact, how the Government has interpreted this status and how they have acted is the result of narratives and ideas. The narrative that London is competing globally has meant that decision makers believe that if they do not invest in London, then the whole economy will lose out (London First, 2018, pp.1). Therefore, although the Government has said that they were committed to rebalancing the economy away from the City of London and finance (Berry and Hay, 2016, pp.6), they have continued to prioritise London maintaining its global city status.


This has meant that policymakers have invested disproportionately in London’s rail infrastructure, as this is seen as being vital to ensuring that London retains this status (HM Government, 2017, pp.16) and ensure the economy continues to grow (Haughton et al, 2016, pp.358). This is because rail infrastructure makes it easier to commute into London’s financial districts and helps physically connect it to the global economy, through links to airports. This has resulted in the imbalance in rail infrastructure investment between London and the rest of the country continuing.



A global city is a city that helps facilitate the international flow of finance and global trade, through this process it provides a large source of income to the host country and brings high skilled, high paid jobs to the country (Haughton et al, 2016, pp.356-358), this means the Government focuses on ensuring London maintains its global city status. As former Chancellor, George Osborne (2014a) said ‘it’s a great strength for our country that it contains such a global city’. The Government’s Industrial Strategy (2017, pp.18) states that ‘London is a world-leading hub for financial services, creative industries, tech businesses and more; a global city which continues to be a magnet for international businesses and talent’. Crouch and Le Gale (2012, pp.411), says London is viewed as the UK’s ‘national champion’ which powers the whole UK economy and is a large source of Government income (Gardiner et al, 2013, pp.913). Investment in London’s Rail infrastructure plays a key role in ensuring this continues to happen, as shown by the Department for Transport Investment Strategy (2017a, pp.16) which states that ‘London’s success as a global city has been driven in part by the effectiveness of its transport system’.


This appears to contradict the Government’s commitment to rebalance the economy away from relying on finance, as George Osborne (2014b) stated ‘we cannot put all our chips on the success of the City of London, as my predecessors did’. Berry and Hay (2016, pp.9) however argue that the rebalancing discourse does not mean that the City of London should be held back, instead it means that other industries need encouragement to catch up. Rosamond (2019) sees this as a product of the path dependency of ideas, the narrative of the UK economy relying on London being international finance centre for economic growth is deeply embedded in Government. Martin (2015, pp.261) says the narrative remains embedded because the financial and political institutions are in the same city. This means there is close relationship between politicians and the City of London. A former civil servant raised the issue of politicians being too close to the City of London, while Berry (2013) found that 15% of MPs had previously worked in finance before being elected. This affects rail infrastructure investment as it means London’s rail infrastructure continues to be prioritised over the rest of the country.


A key part of the global city narrative is the dislocation of space, London is no longer seen as operating as part of the national economy, but as part of the global economy (O’Brien et al, 2018, pp.2). This separation of London spatially from the rest of the UK, has led to decision makers to believe that if they do not invest in London, then footloose capital will go elsewhere (Brown, 2019, pp.93). The narrative of London being a global city, has therefore led decision makers to view it as being essential that London receives the rail infrastructure investment that allows it to retain its global city status. It also means that connecting London to airports and therefore to the global economy, is seen as a priority. ‘As an open, competitive, trading economy, our success is closely tied to our connections with the rest of the world, made through our airports’ (HM Government, 2017, pp.53). The need for London as a global city to have connections to the global economy, explains the reasoning behind Crossrail. It links Heathrow Airport to the City of London and Canary Wharf (the financial centres).


A map of the Crossrail, now renamed the Elizabeth line

HS2, according to Craig Berry also seeks to enhance London’s global city status. This is supported by the Department for Transport (2017a, pp.51) statement that ‘HS2 won’t just connect cities to cities, but to the rest of the world too, with fast connections to Heathrow via the Old Oak Common interchange and HS2 services calling at Birmingham International and Manchester Airport’. Journey times from Manchester Airport to London would be reduced to 59 minutes from 144 minutes, the biggest reduction on the whole route (Arnett, 2014), making it similar to the current time it takes to travel from London Stansted Airport (Trainline, 2019). Luke Raikes from IPPR North, says London is not the only beneficiary from this, ‘if more people want to use Manchester Airport that is only a good thing’, but it suggests that the global city narrative has shaped the decision-making process.



The narrative of London being a global city has meant that policymakers believe that they need to invest in London’s rail infrastructure to ensure that it maintains this status, ensuring that national growth is maximised. It is a material fact that London occupies the role of being a global city, but ideas and narratives play a crucial role in how the policymakers interpret this fact (Hay, 2002, pp.206). This was highlighted by Craig Berry, who said that ‘Brexit shows how the process is contingent. [policymakers] are willing to risk London’s status for Brexit, but not for the North’. The narrative of London being a global city in regard to rail infrastructure investment remains embedded, meaning that policymakers continue to believe that they need to invest in London to ensure it maintains its global city status. This has meant that the imbalance in rail infrastructure spending between London and the rest of the country continues.


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