Original post by Jonathan Prynn via Standard
The vibrant technology, creative and media sectors of the East End will oust the City as the engine of London’s economic growth over the next five years, a new report predicts today.
The £34 billion creative industries centred on areas such as Shoreditch, Hoxton and Bethnal Green are growing at twice the rate of the financial services hubs of the Square Mile and Docklands.
The success of the “flat white economy” — named after the coffee popular with young workers — will restore London’s status as Britain’s fastest growing region by 2016, according to forecasters the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR).
The flat white economy encompasses a range of growing sectors from the digital entrepreneurs of Old Street’s Silicon Roundabout to the independent TV production houses of Hackney. The CEBR says that the inner east London economic zone will see a 31 per cent increase in employment by 2031 compared with just nine per cent in inner west London.
The trend has been accelerated by the Olympics, which resulted in a transport infrastructure and housing boom for the East End.
Charles Davis, head of macroeconomics at the CEBR, said: “London is evolving and adapting to life post-financial crisis.
“While in the short term there has been no shortage of pain with job losses across the City and economic output broadly flat in 2012, we think there are positive signs that the capital is adjusting and new sectors are taking prominence in different parts of London away from the City and the West End.
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