Gavyn Arthur: London's dire transport threatens the City's future

From the Lord Mayor's banquet speech given at London's Guildhall on Monday

The City has a global reputation as a good place to do business, with the highest standard of transparency and integrity. But we face regulation at the European Union level. It is the aim of the European Commission to create a single capital market and a single market in financial services by 2003 and 2005 respectively.

The City supports and applauds this aim. But we must ensure that there is full and timely consultation at every stage of the policy formation.

London is the jewel in Europe's economic crown. Business driven from London by over-regulation or rushed regulation will not be relocated elsewhere within the European Union, but will go outside its borders altogether.

Here in London, our status as a world financial and legal centre depends not on the domestic economy but on the goodwill of our international businesses. And that brings me to the question of transport. It is dire, and so bad that we are approaching the time when the financial pre-eminence of the City may become imperilled.

Crossrail and Thameslink 2000 are stalled; the East London line is mired in arguments. Much of the infrastructure of public transport is crumbling.

I take the Tube every day of my working life. Virtually every day I am delayed. Journey times are up to twice what they were two or three years ago. Millions of London's workers are inconvenienced. What a waste of time, what a waste of productive time, what a way to treat people.

And traffic. Over the past year, central London's traffic has deteriorated to virtual gridlock. Not because of more vehicles, but because of massive roadworks and the alteration of traffic light frequencies. The perception is that traffic is being deliberately brought to a halt.