London and New York face competition from other cities

London and New York still rank among the world's most successful cities, but face growing competition from other global cities such as Tokyo, Hong Kong, Paris, Shanghai, Dubai and Mumbai, according to a report released Tuesday by the Urban Land Institute. The report, entitled 'City Success: What do the global indices tell us?', coincides with ULI's London New York Dialogue Conference being held today in London.

Prepared by ULI Senior Fellow Greg Clark, the report reviews around 30 major indices that measure factors ranging from investment prospects to climate change mitigation to overall community livability. It concludes that there are some common indicators of success, such as connectivity, quality of life and space, innovation and creativity, entrepreneurship and labour force skills. However, to ensure lasting success, other measures must be considered, such as openness to international populations, adaptability of the city's brand, power and influence of the language, city investment and sustainability in terms of climate and environmental sensitivity.

'The indices do show a remarkable degree of consensus, given they each used very different systems of measurements, but they reiterate the need for city leaders to use a range of indices, not just one or two,' said Clark. 'A single aggregation should not be used as a ranking in itself, but rather as a method of promoting discussion of better means to measure comparative city performance,' he added.

The report notes that London and New York are successful not just because they score well on factors such as skills and connectivity, but also because of the English language, the Anglo-American legal system and capital markets, their openness to international populations and their substantial cultural endowments. Nonetheless, major cities in emerging economies are gaining ground rapidly on most measures, and London and New York will face competition from these cities as well as from other smaller cities that have strong niches and fewer problems to solve.

The London New York Dialogue Conference will examine the dominance of London and New York as global financial and cultural centres in the late 20th century, and explore how they are reacting to the worldwide economic crisis and how they must adjust to retain their leading positions.