Throughout its modern history, London has been a centre of growth, innovationand activity. Even at times of population decline, its economy continued to grow,driven by rising worker productivity. This was true in the 1970s and early 1980s– often seen as some of the city’s darkest times in economic terms. But as thisthought-provoking report from the Centre for Cities highlights, despite higheroverall output (driven by a growing population), productivity per worker in Londonslumped from a rate of 3.1 per cent per annum between 1998 and 2007 to just0.2 percent in the period since the global financial crisis of 2008. This loss ofgrowth has literally come at a price; amounting to over £50 billion in 2019 alone –much more than the fiscal surplus the city produced for the rest of the UK in the same year.