London will adapt and thrive from COVID and Brexit and is about to enter a bright new ‘golden era’.

That was according to Canary Wharf Group CEO Sir George Iacobescu in a speech he made after receiving his New Londoner of the Year award at The Guildhall last week.

‘Our city has been shaped by the threats that it has faced’, said Iacobescu. ‘And the latest one is obviously COVID…There are a lot of challenges, it’s true. But this city has survived much worse – the Great Fire, invasions, plagues, the Blitz, the end of Empire and the huge economic changes which closed the factories and docks after the war. We will not only overcome the challenges like Covid and Brexit, but London will adapt and thrive like it has always done.’

Announcing the award, NLA chair Michael Cassidy described Iacobescu as ‘one of the most outstanding contributors to the story of London over the last 30 or more years’, bringing inspiration, commitment and talent. ‘He will leave a legacy of incredible importance’, he added. 

NLA curator in chief Peter Murray said that the award was given for Iacobescu’s involvement in creating Canary Wharf, having developed more than 16 million square feet of office space, but also for the 400,000 jobs Canary Wharf supports in the UK and the effect he has had on international businesses and the capital’s economy. ‘Canary Wharf is such a great example of how the built environment sector, delivering the right accommodation at the right time for the right sort of businesses and the right sort of occupier is just so important for the economy’, said Murray. ‘It is very important that politicians understand that.’

Iacobescu praised the NLA awards and its ‘incredible’ showcase of talent, and, having lived in London for 35 years he was not ‘new’, but nevertheless was of the ‘very strong view that the best days of our city are ahead of us’.

Canary Wharf has some 120,000 workers ‘BC’ – before Covid – he added, and is a financial centre 50% larger than the banking district of Frankfurt. But cities are not made out of buildings, they are made of people, Iacobescu said; it was heart-warming that planners and developers have understood that cities are not static but grow and change over time. ‘And there is no city in the world which is happening more than London’.

An example of this change is Crossrail, which will add significantly to the city, given the precedent of the Jubilee Line’s effect. All the more reason that Transport for London should get a long-term settlement from the government so that it can plan ahead, he said. Ultimately, though, Iacobescu remained confident that London will prosper in the coming years.

‘We all believe’, he said, ‘in a better, cleaner and more successful future for our city’