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Wheels of Fortune - Self funding of Transport
Economist Fred Harrison's Wheels of Fortune Self-funding infrastructure for transport
Wheels of Fortune - click here Don Riley:The findings for Britain may be interpreted with reference to land values, which ultimately reflect most of the externalised costs and benefits. London’s Jubilee Line Extension increased adjoining land values, according to Don Riley (2001: 23−5), by something close to £14 billion. The Jubilee Line Extension cost £3.4 billion to build. Landowners got rich in their sleep. Infrastructure projects almost always bring about a large increase in the value of adjoining land. For example, Transport for London estimate that the extension of the Jubilee Line of the London Underground that opened in 1999 increased land values by £2 billion in Canary Wharf and £800 million in Southwark. When such infrastructure projects are funded by government they therefore almost always involve a substantial transfer of wealth from a large number of taxpayers to a small number of property owners. Harrison argues that a fairer and more efficient means to fund infrastructure projects is to capture and use the increases in land values that they bring. Indeed, Harrison describes how the initial proposal for the Jubilee Line extension made by property owners at Canary Wharf involved funding the project with private finance put up against anticipated rises in property values. Had this option been pursued the entire project could have been completed at no cost to the public purse. The experience of other countries shows that more efficient and fairer regimes for funding infrastructure projects can be developed. Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore have utilised the value of land to fund the construction and maintenance of extremely efficient, modern transport systems that now operate successfully without taxpayers’ money: modern, efficient transport systems do not necessarily require public subsidy. Last edited by Ringo; 26th April 2012 at 11:16. |
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