The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

Please see the letter below from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.

The Lord Birt

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

4 September 2025

Dear Lord Birt,

As Acting National Statistician, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent on 23 July (HL9313), whether the reasons as to why London’s economy is 28.5 per cent more productive on average than the rest of the United Kingdom can be identified (HL9939).

London is home to a high proportion of knowledge-intensive sectors such as financial services, insurance, and professional, scientific, and technical industries, all of which drive higher levels of productivity. There is evidence that London, like other major cities, benefits from an agglomeration effect, whereby the close proximity of a diverse mix of businesses, highly skilled labour, and major institutions fuels knowledge spillovers, collaboration, and innovation which enhance overall economic output. 1

London-based firms also consistently outperform their regional peers, even within the same industries, with firms benefitting from access to a large highly skilled labour market and a well-developed infrastructure and also from high competition between firms driving business dynamism.

This same pattern is found globally, with the largest cities typically having higher productivity levels compared with other areas due to these agglomeration impacts.

Yours sincerely,

Emma Rourke

1 https://whatworksgrowth.org/insights/understanding-agglomeration/

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.

Emma Rourke | Acting National Statistician

The Lord Birt

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

16 July 2025

Dear Lord Birt,

As Acting National Statistician, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking how the productivity of London’s economy compares with the UK’s economy as a whole (HL9313).

According to our latest regional labour productivity publication for 2023, titled Regional and subregional labour productivity, UK: 2023[1], London remains by far the most productive region in the UK. The headline measure, output per hour worked, shows that London’s productivity was 28.5% higher than the UK average in 2023.

Yours sincerely,

Emma Rourke

[1]https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/economicoutputandproductivity/productivitymeasures/bulletins/regionalandsubregionallabourproductivityuk/2023

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply and I will place a copy of their letter in the Library of the House.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply and I will place a copy of their letter in the Library of the House.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply and I will place a copy of their letter in the Library of the House.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

Letter from Glen Watson, Director General for ONS, to Lord Birt, dated June 2014.

As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking Her Majesty’s Government what are the latest available figures on output (1) per worker, and (2) per hour worked, in the United Kingdom; and how those figures compare with the equivalents for Germany, France and the United States. (HL398)

Quarterly estimates of labour productivity in terms of output per worker and output per hour worked are published quarterly in index number form (2010=100) and as percentage changes on earlier periods. They can be found on the ONS website at:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/productivity/labour-productivity/index.html

The latest estimates available are for the fourth quarter of 2013 and show the index for output per worker for the whole economy at 100.5, an increase of 1.3% on the same quarter in 2012 and unchanged from the previous quarter. The index for output per hour worked was 99.1 in the fourth quarter, an increase of 0.7% on the same quarter in 2012 and an increase of 0.3% on the previous quarter. The next publication of UK labour productivity statistics will be on 1 July. This will include estimates up to the first quarter of 2014.

Annual comparisons of labour productivity between the UK and the G7 economies in levels terms are published biannually on the ONS website at:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/icp/international-comparisons-of-productivity/index.html

The latest estimates available are for 2012 and show output per worker in Germany, France and the United States was 11, 18 and 46 percentage points more productive respectively relative to the UK.

In terms of output per hour worked, the latest estimates show that Germany, France and the USA 31, 32 and 35 percentage points more productive respectively than the UK in 2012.

The next publication of international comparisons of productivity will be in September 2014, when first estimates for 2013 will be published.