City of London

I congratulate the hon. Member for Selby (Mr. Grogan) on introducing this important debate. I shall focus mostly on hedge funds and alternative investment matters, which was the original title of the debate and a subject on which the hon. Gentleman focused in the latter part of his speech. The hon. Gentleman gave us a quick tour d'horizon of the history of the City of London, and he was right to say that roughly 350,000 people work there every day. For the first time since censuses began in 1801 and certainly since the arrival of the railways, its residential population is beginning to increase, albeit incrementally. None the less, it is a place not only for work but, to a large extent, for rest and play. I stress that the present lord mayor has firmly been making the case during his programme of overseas visits that the City is not simply about the banks. The banks may have been particularly hard hit in the past year or so, but other parts of the financial services sector have not suffered to the same extent. When seeking to deal with the banking sector, it is important to avoid having a negative impact on those other parts. The lord mayor and Stuart Fraser, the leader of the City of London corporation and chairman of policy and resources, have sought to highlight the fact that, as well as the banking industry, insurance, communications, technology, legal, accounting and other related professional and business services industries have an essential role to play in stimulating economic recovery and growth. The hon. Member for Selby rightly pointed out, with great fairness, that the whole UK benefits greatly from a thriving financial services business; it may be based in London, but it has great strengths in other centres such as Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh and Glasgow.