In 2016, as Britons voted in the historic referendum, a report by the Boston Consulting Group warned a whopping 80,000 – 20 percent of the total – could be moved from the Square Mile as a result of Brexit. It said the impact would be far worse than that of the financial crisis between 2007 and 2010, when roughly 55,000 jobs were lost.
In a stark warning to the city, the group even advised German cities to “prepare for job relatocations in various industries and actively seize the opportunities offered by this influx of qualified workers”.
But anti-Brexit fearmongering has not paid off, with well under 10 percent of the number of predicted jobs actually having been lost, almost six years on from the vote.
And officials suggest this has been offset by gains in industries in the city.
City of London Mayor Vincent Keaveny told an audience in Dublin the area has done far better post-Brexit than many had predicted.
Quoted in the Irish Times, he said: “A certain number of jobs have moved out of London.
“We think it’s a very small number, in the region of 7,500.”
He added: “We’ve also seen tens of thousands of jobs being created on the fintech side of the City.
“This has made any job losses or job relocations on the Brexit side relatively insignificant in the overall scheme of things.”
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This follows a report near the end of last year that showed most high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) in the UK believe London more widely will remain the financial capital of Europe over the next decade.
An impressive 68 percent said London will continue to top other European cities over the next 10 years.
The figure rose to 75 percent among the HNWIs living in London.
Given the minimal impact on the City of Brexit, this is likely to remain true over the decade beyond this.
Out of the 1,000 people polled, 80 percent also said they felt confident about the future of the country’s economy.
Thirty-three percent said they felt “very confident”.
