London's Economy Today - Issue 219 - November 2020

The overview

• The Government has spent over £280bn since March to tackle the COVID-19 crisis and its effects.
• London’s labour market is weakening.
• Stock markets rally in response to positive global developments.

Economic indicators

• 141.5 million passenger journeys in London public transport were registered between 20 September and 17 October this year, 10.4 million journeys more than in the previous period (23 August - 19 September) but still very low from a historic perspective. As a reference, passenger journeys in February – when there were no lockdown restrictions – were 271.4 million.
• The PMI new business index in London went down in October to 47.2 from 53.3 in September. An index reading above 50.0 indicates an increase in new orders from the previous month.
• In October, expectations of future house prices in London turned negative (-17) and went back to July levels.

London's Economy Today supplement: Analysis on the impact of the 2017 business rates revaluation

• This analysis has not shown definitively that the revaluation of 2017 has directly impacted on the viability of businesses. It has, nevertheless, highlighted some interesting patterns and trends in how companies and organisations have adapted to higher rates and rents.
• In London, office space can be relatively easily partitioned. In recent years, many of us who work in offices have become accustomed to hotdesking, and remote working has allowed companies to reduce the size of their offices. This has not been practical for retail outlets - so the same trends have not been found there.
• This suggests that concerns about rates are more likely to be found in high street retail outlets than landlords or tenants of office workspaces.

London’s Economy Today data on the Datastore

• The main economic indicators for London are available to download from the Datastore.