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City of London Says UK Needs Better Financial Services Strategy

Skyscrapers in the Canary Wharf financial, business and shopping district on the bank of the River Thames in London, UK, on Monday, March 18, 2024. Real estate prices are bottoming and there’s a great opportunity to move fast and buy assets at beaten-down prices, according to Blackstone Inc. President Jon Gray. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg (Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- The City of London thinks the UK could attract as much as £7.7 billion ($10.2 billion) more investment by 2030 if it did a better job of attracting foreign sovereign wealth.

The government should establish a long-term financial and professional services strategy and create a dedicated agency to implement it, the financial district’s governing body said in a statement. A key aim should be to encourage investors like sovereign wealth funds and public pension funds to open a UK office, which prompts higher levels of investment.

Research by the City of London Corporation found that investors who opened a UK office more than doubled their investments in the country compared to the preceding five years. That includes Singapore’s Temasek fund and Canada’s British Columbia Investment Management Corp. 

Altogether, sovereign investors with UK bases have committed £119.5 billion over the past decade, it found. 

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.