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How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

economist.com

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Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#191

Post by TuringNYC »

philipallstar wrote: post #141
TuringNYC wrote: post #114

I cant speak to all this, but as an American doing a lot of work in London, wow transportation is incredibly great. Shockingly impressive. Traveling to London, and getting around London, and doing a lot of meetings in a small trip, is easier than anywhere in the US now because of how beautifully their transit system works (despite occasional delays which can be expected.) The rollout of the Elizabeth Line from Heathr…

The Elizabeth Line was unbelievably expensive to build; that's how the UK did it.

>> The Elizabeth Line was unbelievably expensive to build; that's how the UK did it.

Fair. But what is also expensive is every single citizen taking $100 Uber rides to the airport, like in NYC. In NJ, the transit service has become so volatile and sporadic and opaque that people have reduced NJTransit use for Newark airport in favor of simply driving.

Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#192

Post by mytailorisrich »

ifwinterco wrote: post #93
kjellsbells wrote: post #24

Is this really surprising? London picks up all the advantages of the UK (legal system is sound, eg in contract law, native speakers of English, the lingua franca of business, strong university tradition) and adds in its special sauce: access to the City, global-tier culture, excellent public transport (I know we moan about it, but it really is excellent), and a timezone location that easily serves the US and Asia mar…

It's a classic example of how natural advantages and network effects can overcome mediocre to poor policymaking. The UK has been run by blithering idiots for decades at this point, but London has survived so far

Maybe the UK has been run by blithering idiots but the business environment and regulations are still among the most attractive in Europe... not sure what that says about the other European countries.

Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#193

Post by graemep »

rowanajmarshall wrote: post #168
gpderetta wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was going to reply to grandparent that only flat prices are coming down because of rising service charge costs, and being hard to mortgage because of cladding issues. But after some research it is indeed true that house prices are, to a lesser extent, also going down, at least in real terms, if not nominal.

I actually wrote a webapp to show this, check it out - https://housepricedashboard.co.uk/ London house prices are falling quite a lot in real terms.

Nice work. Have you considered add real terms changes?

Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#194

Post by qweiopqweiop »

HPMOR wrote: post #16
edogrider wrote: post #7

This checks out. I live in Silicon Valley but now work for a startup in London. Same vibe, less attitude. They are not the same. The energy/resources in SF/SV are 5x at a minimum - but London has it going on.

Yeah SF is 10x every other place in earth. People that think things are comparable have never lived here.

10x more insufferable tech bros too? I've never lived there true, but I've spent some time there to know this place isn't for me.

Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#195

Post by dijit »

blibble wrote: post #157
sjhuda wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thin air? It was delivered 3 years late and cost £5bn more than it should have. While projects like HS2 to the North are scaled back. The UK uses other parts of the county as a piggy bank to fund London projects. I have a dog in this fight as I'm quite close to the public transport industry in the North and it's pretty disheartening to see politicans use us as some sort of "policy win" and then never follow through w…

> The UK uses other parts of the county as a piggy bank to fund London projects. it's the exact opposite

This is demonstrably false. The data shows the exact opposite.

Transport spending in London was £1,313 per capita in 2023/24, compared with just £368 per head in the East Midlands[0] - nearly 4x the investment. Over the decade to 2022/23, if the North had received the same per person transport spending as London, it would have received £140 billion more[1]. The East Midlands got just £355 per person, the lowest of every nation and region[1].

Yes, London generates a fiscal surplus, but that's a self-fulfilling prophecy. London receives the highest investment spending for both economic and non-economic areas, relative to population size[2]. In 2022, infrastructure construction spend in London was £8.8 billion, whilst Scotland came second with £3.6 billion[3].

It's circular logic:

* invest heavily in London

-> infrastructure drives productivity

-> higher productivity generates more tax revenue

-> claim London 'subsidises' other regions

-> use this to justify more London investment.

Infrastructure investment enhances productive potential[4], but all other regions are systematically denied it.

London has returns on investment because it's the only place that actually gets proper investment. You can't starve regions of infrastructure for decades, watch their productivity stagnate, then point to London's tax surplus as proof they are subsidising others, that's fucking stupid.

---

[0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1134495/transport-spendi...

[1] https://www.ippr.org/media-office/ippr-north-and-ippr-reveal...

[2] https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn06...

[3] https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/economicoutputandproductivity...

[4] https://www.bennettschool.cam.ac.uk/blog/what-role-infrastru...

Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#196

Post by chpatrick »

philipallstar wrote: post #141
TuringNYC wrote: post #114

I cant speak to all this, but as an American doing a lot of work in London, wow transportation is incredibly great. Shockingly impressive. Traveling to London, and getting around London, and doing a lot of meetings in a small trip, is easier than anywhere in the US now because of how beautifully their transit system works (despite occasional delays which can be expected.) The rollout of the Elizabeth Line from Heathr…

The Elizabeth Line was unbelievably expensive to build; that's how the UK did it.

It's a massive investment in the areas near its stations.

Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#197

Post by rowanajmarshall »

graemep wrote: post #193
rowanajmarshall wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually wrote a webapp to show this, check it out - https://housepricedashboard.co.uk/ London house prices are falling quite a lot in real terms.

Nice work. Have you considered add real terms changes?

Already a feature, you can switch between nominal or inflation adjusted in the Change View panel -https://housepricedashboard.co.uk/?tab=change&start=2014&end...

Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#198

Post by Joeboy »

johnisgood wrote: post #137
kjellsbells wrote: post #24

Is this really surprising? London picks up all the advantages of the UK (legal system is sound, eg in contract law, native speakers of English, the lingua franca of business, strong university tradition) and adds in its special sauce: access to the City, global-tier culture, excellent public transport (I know we moan about it, but it really is excellent), and a timezone location that easily serves the US and Asia mar…

Is it reasonable to say that in many (not all) parts of London, English no longer functions reliably as the default public language, even if most individuals technically "speak English"?

Your comment reminded of the youtuber who changed the shop signs in his video into scary non-English script: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPZxMVpnCBM

Edit: Changed to link I like a bit more

Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#199

Post by blibble »

dijit wrote: post #195
blibble wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The UK uses other parts of the county as a piggy bank to fund London projects. it's the exact opposite

This is demonstrably false. The data shows the exact opposite. Transport spending in London was £1,313 per capita in 2023/24, compared with just £368 per head in the East Midlands[0] - nearly 4x the investment. Over the decade to 2022/23, if the North had received the same per person transport spending as London, it would have received £140 billion more[1]. The East Midlands got just £355 per person, the lowest of ev…

> This is demonstrably false. The data shows the exact opposite.

it is not

> Yes, London generates a fiscal surplus

thank you

the only regions of the UK that generate a net return to the treasury are London, the South East and East of England

(the East of England certainly has reasons to be upset, they have naff all infrastructure AND are a net payer)

> You can't starve regions of infrastructure for decades, watch their productivity stagnate, then point to London's tax surplus as proof the system works, that's fucking stupid.

fortunately I didn't claim that

please put the strawman down

Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#200

Post by ifwinterco »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #192
ifwinterco wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a classic example of how natural advantages and network effects can overcome mediocre to poor policymaking. The UK has been run by blithering idiots for decades at this point, but London has survived so far

Maybe the UK has been run by blithering idiots but the business environment and regulations are still among the most attractive in Europe... not sure what that says about the other European countries.

Indeed, I can't speak for how other European countries work but if the Labour/Conservative/Whitehall nomenklatura is producing better results than your political system, something is very very wrong
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