RUTH SUNDERLAND: Canary Wharf leads the way
Once a derelict docklands area, now a gleaming city within a city, Canary Wharf is one of our most potent symbols of regeneration.
In its early years, it had a reputation for being difficult to reach from central London, and bleak and soulless when you got there.
In the aftermath of the Covid lockdowns, which emptied out office buildings as bankers worked from home, reports of its demise proliferated.
Under the leadership of chief executive Shobi Khan and chairman Sir Nigel Wilson, it has made quite the comeback.
Credit card giant Visa’s decision to move its European HQ there is the latest coup, coming swiftly after an announcement by JP Morgan.
By coincidence, I happened to be at the Wharf this week for the first time in a while. At the flagship One Canada Square building, developer Canary Wharf Group sits cheek by jowl with scale-up entrepreneurs and University College London School of Management’s ‘campus in the clouds’.
Regeneration: Once a derelict docklands area, Canary Wharf is now a gleaming city within a city
As well as offices, there are posh shops, theatres, gyms, restaurants and residential blocks. Wilson is so enthusiastic about the district, he lives in one of them.
The real revelation was the Elizabeth Line, which whizzed me back to the West End in a trice.
In his previous role as boss of insurance giant Legal & General, Wilson was a highly effective advocate for using the billions of pounds of capital in pension funds to invest in building a better Britain. He believes Canary Wharf is a prototype for other cities and towns in the UK.
Of course it will be harder to create outside London. But Canary Wharf is testament to what is possible with investment and imagination.
It shows overseas investors will still back Britain. Even on a wet and cloudy day in east London, we need not resign ourselves to the glum future peddled so relentlessly by Labour.
Changing channels
The £62billion media mega-deal for Netflix to buy Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) puts some perspective on Sky’s recent approach to ITV for its media and entertainment business.
At just £1.6billion, that deal is a mere amuse-bouche for US media giants, including Sky’s owner Comcast, which was also bidding for WBD.
If the Netflix purchase gets past a panoply of regulators, it will bring WBD’s streaming business, the well-regarded HBO franchise, and content including Harry Potter into the stable. WBD’s cable networks are to be spun off.
It is a clear indication of where the industry is heading, with more consolidation on the menu.
When UK regulators look at Sky and ITV, they will consider how many players are viable in this marketplace.
If they would like one of these to be a British champion, they may well look more favourably upon the deal, which is being presented in that guise.
One fly in the ointment, of course, is that Comcast-owned Sky – though deeply embedded in the United Kingdom – is not actually British.
Given the pressures on legacy broadcasters, it may be the best option for ITV.
Still, it would be sad to see such a quintessentially British media business pass into US ownership, particularly when its arch-rival the BBC is facing an existential crisis of its own.
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