London – a magnet for talent

Alexandra Jones writes for Lib Dem Voice on why we are seeing so many young people move to London.

Press release published on 3 February 2014

Vince Cable recently accused London of acting like a giant machine that sucks in all of the talent from the rest of the country. Our new report, Cities Outlook 2014, shows that London is indeed a magnet for young people from across the country. But the big question is: why does this happen, and what does it mean for policy?

First, let’s look at the key stats. Somewhat counterintuitively, overall London loses population to the rest of the country. But this is overwhelmingly to the Greater South East, whereas between 2009 and 2012, almost every city outside this region lost population to the Capital. London also sees large gains in people aged 22-30 – all but five cities (all of which are in the Greater South East) saw people within this age group leave to the capital.

Read the full article in Lib Dem Voice