On London Extra: Build and grow

At the same time, if possible please. Plus capital's MPs rise, London Society chat, tunnel tolls, a Kensal Rise dog, a Tooting tortoise and more...

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One week on from Labour's landslide, impatience and anxiety are already eating into pleasure and relief. The welcome feeling that serious people dedicated to serving the country have taken its helm, replacing a bunch of ideologues and chancers who, for years, had thought only of how to cling to power, is being eroded by calls for change of a type Keir Starmer did not promise - the type that happens quickly thanks to big injections of cash.

As the new Prime Minister and colleagues warn that things are even worse than they thought, not least the public finances, the need to increase economic growth feels still more urgent. The capital is crucial to meeting that need. Will it get the help it requires?

On Tuesday, the London Property Alliance published a report compiled by Arup about "good growth" in central London: what it is and how more of it can be achieved. It states that the Central Activities Zone (CAZ) encompassing the West End, the City and a surrounding area stretching from Battersea to the Angel and King's Cross, plus the Northern Isle of Dogs - essentially, Canary Wharf - generate 48 per cent of Greater London's Gross Value Added economic output from just 2.2 per cent of its land area.

Presenting the document at the HUB Victoria office complex, Arup's Matthew Dillon placed those figures in a still more dramatic national context, saying that London's CAZ-plus contributes 13 per cent of the UK's GVA from 0.0001 per cent, or one ten thousandth, of its space. The UK's heavy dependency on London might be regrettable, but to imagine the UK can recover without it running at full strength would be fanciful.