Quote of the day: the London Black Hole and the Finance Curse

Our quote of the day comes from Tim Hames, director general of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, via an excellent article on London by Charles Goodhart, which is well worth reading in its own right.

‘As far as the professional middle class is concerned London has become a form of gigantic black hole dragging everything into it. To choose to build a career anywhere else is, at best, to be deemed eccentric and, at worst, a disturbing indication of a lack of ambition. In England, it is often London or bust.’

Anyone familiar with our work on the Finance Curse will recognise this immediately. As one cross-country academic study put it, highly remunerated finance “literally bids rocket scientists away from the satellite industry.”

London’s gains (or the gains of a lucky segment of Londoners) are so often obtained at the expense of others in Britain.