Scotland held back by crumbling infrastructure and dirty streets

As chief executive of the trade body representing Scotland’s financial services sector, there are a lot of things you would expect to be asked when meeting potential investors in New York. You would expect to be asked about this country’s globally renowned higher education sector; our expertise in fintech, asset management and green finance; or even our ambitious plans to grow the industry’s annual contribution to the UK economy by £7 billion over the next four years.

You might not, however, expect investors on the other side of the world to ask about the state of Edinburgh’s Princes Street, dirty town and city centres, or delayed trains. Yet that is exactly what did come up during my trade visit for this year’s annual Tartan Week