LBM November December 2026 Pages Alternative Digital 208 | Page 6

6 Features

Choosing London makes sense for the UK

LCCI has launched a campaign – Choose LDN. – as part of its vision to make the capital a place where young people can afford to build their futures, and where businesses can access the talent they need to grow
At a time when the political focus is moving away from London and the South East, LCCI argues the whole country has a stake in London’ s ability to attract international investment.
Competitive
In order to make London more competitive, the Chamber’ s campaign calls on the government to:
• Reverse the last increase in employer National Insurance contributions
• Get a pragmatic new deal with the EU over the line
• Reduce the cost of the planning system and support first-time buyers, making London housebuilding and homeownership viable
again
• Restore VAT-free shopping to pull international tourists back from our international competitors
• Reverse changes to the non-dom regime to attract wealth creators back to the UK
• Designate King’ s Cross as an AI investment zone to defend London’ s place as the tech hub of Europe
• Deliver airport expansion at Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton to add billions of pounds to the UK economy and support tens of thousands of jobs across the country, powered by private investment
• Back the Bakerloo line extension, support the DLR extension to Thamesmead,
“ If the Prime Minister is to meet his promise to deliver growth in every postcode, we must now do the same for London.
and restart work on the next Elizabeth Line, Crossrail 2, to build thousands of homes, create skilled jobs across the country and generate hundreds of millions of pounds in tax receipts. The success of the Elizabeth line, worth £ 42 billion to the UK economy and
funded using an innovative mix of public and private investment, should be used as the model for future infrastructure projects.
Consensus
LCCI chief executive Karim Fatehi OBE made the point that thriving economies treated the success of their capital cities as national policy issues and built a consensus around their capital succeeding.“ If the Prime Minister is to meet his promise to deliver growth in every postcode, we must now do the same for London.” He said the campaign put LCCI and its members at the heart of the national debate on driving prosperity in every part of