The City responded with careful optimism but a considerable degree of caution last night to the prospect of Boris Johnson as Mayor.

While many confessed that they were unaware of Mr Johnson’s “Backing London Business” manifesto, most said that his plan to eradicate Ken Livingstone’s infamous “bendy” buses would address one of their fundamental problems: getting in and out of the City’s Square Mile.

The CBI welcomed indications that Mr Johnson would win and said that he would bring vigour and enthusiasm to the role.

Nigel Bourne, the director of CBI London, said that Mr Johnson was untested but that he would score big points in the business community if he made tackling congestion a top priority. “There are three huge challenges ahead for the new mayor,” he said. “Tackling congestion, working with business to raise skill levels of the City and making the most of the London 2012 Olympic Games.”

Mr Johnson, whose only experience in business was a week as a management consultant, has sought to woo the business community with his promise to maintain London as one of the world’s most attractive and competitive places to do business, just at the time when its influence on the world stage is seen as dwindling under a Labour Government.

City sources have said that one of the attractions of Boris for Mayor is what they perceive would be his hands-off approach to business.

Sir John Ritblat, the honorary president and former chairman and chief executive of British Land, said: “In many respects Ken has been a cause for good . . . but it may be that Boris will take a more pragmatic view of the abilities of the Lord Mayor and the City to regulate its own affairs rather than conflict with them.”

The head of one investment bank in London said that Mr Johnson was a little-known quantity in the City and would be judged on his performance. “But you wouldn’t really expect a Conservative politician to make the City a centrepiece of his campaign,” he said. “I don’t really think it will make a lot of difference.”

A FTSE-100 chairman with close links to the Government said that Mr Johnson would be “unpredictable and exciting” as a London mayor.

“Ken Livingstone came up with some good ideas, including the congestion charge, but he always managed to screw things up by aligning himself with some of Labour’s more fringe leftist ideas or associating himself with questionable figures.”

The chairman said that people were voting for Mr Johnson because of his charisma and style rather than his policies, although he said that this was no bad thing. “The problem is I worry that none of them will be able to deliver the investment that is needed in London’s infrastructure, particularly Government investment in the transport system, the Tube,” he said.

Nick Samuel, chief executive of Hobbs, the retailer, and president of the Regents Street Association, said that Mr Johnson’s intentions and heart were in the right place but “whether he has experience or gravitas, well I suppose we will find out”.

He agreed that one of the biggest challenges for the new mayor would be London’s infrastructure and planning. “We have a lot of empty buses, and routes that are overpopulated and others which are under served,” he said. “Oxford Street is impossible to walk down, let alone cross.”

Another chief executive, who declined to be named, said: “Boris is clearly highly intelligent and larger than life. I don’t think anyone should care about his buffoonery.

“If he’s got an overdeveloped sense of humour, so what? It’s what the City needs.”

Additional reporting by Miles Costello and Steve Hawkes

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