London is still top dog when it comes to foreign investment, according to a new KPMG report. Hong Kong and Shanghai are close behind while both Brazilian's Sao Paulo and Moscow also saw strong gains.

Indeed, Moscow vaults forwards by 60%, elbowing itself into eighth place overall. But how secure is London's future?


So Solid

Rock solid. For the moment. Yes, stories of big corporates threatening to leave London for Asia (Prudential is the latest) always make headlines. But London's entrenched legal and accountancy infrastructure not to mention the Square Mile's institutional corporate power base still make London fairly impregnable.

Some of the City of London's prestige was dented following the Occupy protest at St Paul's Cathedral and other places in the last six months. A new YouGov poll indicates 39% still support the aims of the Occupy London movement, regardless of the acrimony over the St Paul's protest, and internationally the protest movement continues.

Eurozone help

Meanwhile Chinese companies, for example, facing a long waiting time to list at home, appear increasingly willing to look at London, a move supported by Chinese investment banks in London, such as China International Capital Corporation (CICC), which listed last May.

KPMG claims that the top five cities, New York included, continue to guzzle 50% of the the total city global investment. But what continues to keep London solid, particularly recently, has been the eurozone crisis. International investors, frustrated with returns elsewhere and nervous of European contagion, continue to park their cash in the capital.

Investment = jobs

The UK, more broadly, has a measure of political stability some parts of the Club Med eurozone, in particular, can't come close to. Capital cities like Moscow may have made recent headway. But they can't touch the safe-haven status of the British capital. For consumers that means more secure jobs and opportunity.

But that is predominantly London jobs and opportunity. Something the Chancellor is under pressure to look at in next week's Budget.