Quality of life, the new global battlefield

I attended the launch of London's Quality of Life Indicators 2012 report on Wednesday evening.

The report itself makes for very interesting reading. However, what I found even more interesting than the content was the context in which the report was set.

The event was intensely politicised and the presentations were very on message with respect to London's performance. I don't propose to comment on the basket of indicators chosen or the methodology used in displaying them- read the report for yourself.

Matthew Pencharz, the Mayors Environmental and Political adviser was on hand to set the scene and his fundamental message was simple- In a globalised world, London has to compete directly with other cities in order to attract investment and talent, Quality of life is one of the fundamental weapons in its armoury.

This ties in neatly with a major research initiative the City has planned for a little later this year.

The concept is fairly simple-

In 2050 the planet will have around 10 billion people living on it. The majority of those people will live in cities.   

Those people will need feeding, housing and transportation. They will require water to drink, their waste will need to be disposed of and they will need energy. 

How are these challenges going to be met, and with the retrenchment of the public sector where is investment in this infrastructure going to come from?

I will let you know more about how we intend to answer these questions in due course.