Guest Insight: Louise Cooper
Leaders.inc has long provided members with a quarterly economic update designed to zoom out from day-to-day property headlines and look at the bigger forces shaping confidence, consumer behaviour and market conditions. For our first update of 2026, we were joined by Louise Cooper, a familiar face across TV, radio and print, whose career spans a decade as a stockbroker at Goldman Sachs, 25 years in financial journalism (including the BBC and The Times), and her current role as Senior Lecturer in Finance at Kingston University.
Louise’s session was candid, high-energy, and, by her own admission, more “buckle up” than “sunny uplands”. Rather than offering neat predictions, she challenged members to think in systems: What happens when growth is sluggish, public spending rises, debt servicing becomes more expensive, and incentives across the economy start to shift?
Not all growth is created equal
A key thread was the idea that not all spending is equal, and that the composition of growth matters as much as the headline number. Louise explored what it can mean when economic momentum is being supported more by the public sector than by private-sector expansion, and the knock-on questions that raises for productivity, business investment, and long-term resilience.
We also discussed the tension between tax, spending and behaviour, using the “show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome” mindset to examine whether current policy settings encourage work, investment and hiring, or unintentionally suppress them. Members were asked to respond live to polling questions about investment intentions, hiring appetite, and the personal impact of tax decisions. The results sparked plenty of reflection and plenty of follow-up questions.
From there, Louise guided members through the drivers that matter most for residential property, interest rates, inflation, credit availability, consumer confidence, wages and employment, alongside the growing influence of political and geopolitical shocks. Her message wasn’t “doom”, but it was clear: this is a market where assumptions deserve stress-testing.
As a Leaders.inc member, this is the level of insight you’re part of. Our economic updates go beyond the headlines to help you understand the forces shaping the market and lead with greater clarity in a changing environment.
If you’re not yet a member and would like access to sessions like this, you can explore membership
