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As part of the final report on the evidence base that is informing and supporting the development of London’s Local Industrial Strategy, GLA Economics published evidence on London’s economy with a view to supporting the overall objective of achieving inclusive growth in London. Their work reports on London’s strengths, key constraints, issues and risks for the five foundations of productivity introduced by the Industrial Strategy White Paper (Business Environment, People, Infrastructure, Ideas and Place), while also highlighting the economics linkages between the economy of London and the rest of the UK.
The technical input for this included Belmana’s ressearch for the Greater London Authority on innovation diffusion. Innovation diffusion is the spread of new products, values, policies or processes beyond the locus of their original success (Rogers, 2003). The study looks at innovation diffusion in London, providing evidence – from existing literature, empirical analysis and stakeholder interviews – about the importance of diffusion in supporting productivity improvements, barriers to the effective diffusion of innovations and policy levers that could be used by the GLA to overcome these barriers.
Analysis shows London is responsible for substantial amounts of knowledge spillovers for the city itself, the rest of the UK and globally. Translating these innovation strengths into productivity improvements in London depends on the diffusion of ideas and best practice across businesses in the capital.