Capital cities build collaborative approach to improved prosperity

Businesses from Edinburgh and the City of London are collaborating on developing ways to harness their heavyweight financial and culture sectors to help drive economic growth.

Representatives from both the financial and cultural sectors in the two cities came together in Edinburgh at a meeting convened by Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce and the City of London Chamber Committee.

At the inaugural event, hosted by the Royal Bank of Scotland, it was agreed that further work should be developed around three themes:

• Vision for Economic Growth
• Connect to Prosper
• Cultural Collaboration

An updated partnership agreement signed in recent days between First Minister Humza Yousaf and London’s Lord Mayor, Michael Mainelli, recognises that “the financial sectors of Scotland and London have more to gain from cooperating and coordinating, than competing.”

The Edinburgh meeting was designed to build on the close links between the two capitals, and in particular their world-leading roles in culture and heritage, and in finance. Both have large talent pools to draw on, and The City of London Corporation is the 4th largest funder of culture and heritage in the UK, as they aspire to make the City of London a 7-day destination.

Both cities also have issues around inequalities that need to be addressed. For example, 1 million people in the UK don’t have a bank account, and 15 million people have savings of less than ￡100. Those at the meeting discussed the role that businesses might play in helping tackle the issue of poverty and inequality, and how to attract more diverse talented people into the financial sector.

Liz McAreavey , Chief Executive of Edinburgh Chamber, said: “Financial services provide nearly 10% of jobs in Edinburgh, whilst 5% come from the culture sector, with the city’s 11 festivals contributing ￡400million to the city’s economy in 2022. That shows the scale of the value these two sectors bring.”

“We need to work with our financial services and our culture sector to see how we can further develop a more meaningful and supportive environment in which both benefit and grow.”

Alderman Prem Goyal OBE , Founding Chair of the City of London Chamber, stated: “By bringing together our Chambers in the City of London and Edinburgh, two major financial centres in the UK, we're establishing a strong partnership to support and enhance the cultural offering of both cities."

“The inaugural event of this relationship marks the commencement of a new pathway towards sustained collaboration, holding the promise of delivering prosperity for all."

“The combined influence of the City of London and Edinburgh is set to strengthen the cultural fabric of both cities, benefitting businesses and the wider community, and ultimately boosting the UK's economic growth.”

The discussion covered a number of ideas for collaboration including:

• How greater working together might help The City of London’s ￡10bn fund - ?built up over centuries to promote the city and financial and business services across the country – have positive impact in Edinburgh.
• Investigating the potential in Scotland to set up a similar sovereign wealth fund, drawn from our offshore energy.

In addition, the meeting looked at how the flow of investment and capital could be improved to support the culture sector in Scotland, with only 15% of tickets sold by Scottish theatres being for Scottish productions – meaning much of the money supports organisations outside the country.