The scale of job losses in the City of London is likely to be less than feared, according to the City of London Corporation.
The City of London Corporation is the local authority for the square mile and the organisation’s special representative to the European Union (EU), Jeremy Browne, said: “Relocations as a result of Brexit may end up being a bit less dramatic than it might have initially appeared.
"I don't think companies are saying 'Shall we abandon London?'; the City will remain the key international financial centre for Europe.
"We are looking at somewhere between 5,000 to 13,000 movements for Brexit day one from among the 1.1 million people employed in the financial sector across the UK."
His estimate is much less than that of Oliver Wyman, a consultancy firm hired by the industry body CityUK, which said it expected job losses could be as high as 75,000.
The figure was based on there being a hard Brexit, which could involve quitting the European Union without a deal in place, with no transition period.
Since the report from Oliver Wyman was published, the UK government and the EU have agreed a transition period of two years is desirable.
Mr Browne is a former MP for the Liberal Democrats and was a minister in the Foreign Office between 2010 and 2012, and later a minister at the Home Office.
His comments came as John Cryan, chief executive of Deutsche Bank, said the number of jobs his firm will move out of London as a result of Brexit will be in the hundreds, rather than the thousands.
Jonathan Davis, who runs Jonathan Davis Wealth Management in Hertford, said: "No question some companies will be severely detrimentally affected, short to medium term, by Brexit.
"Others will do fantastically well from Brexit. My outlook is there will be a net benefit, economically, to the UK from Brexit. Brexit, however, has zero impact on my investment thinking.”
david.thorpe@ft.com
