While Londoners complain of poor work-life balance, high living costs and seemingly endless Tube strikes, the capital has become even more attractive to foreign executives than ever.
A survey of 400 foreign-born executives, by foreign direct investment agency Think London and Cranfield School of Management, found 93% believe working in London would benefit their career.
This belief is borne out in the findings – of those polled, 60% have been promoted during their time in the capital and almost 80% expect further promotion when they leave.
Eight out of 10 of those interviewed said that colleagues in their home country viewed a move to London as very important to their career development.
Contrary to fears voiced by the CBI and others, foreign executives did not worry about excessive red tape, according to one of the report’s authors, Michael Dickmann.
“People said to us that a strong attraction [of coming to London] was they perceived there was less red tape to deal with than in other places,” he said.
Dickmann said another key draw was that people in the UK accepted different cultures, making it more attractive than the US.
