windfall gains to land owners in the area. A land value tax would enable the Mayor and government to reinvest a proportion of these windfall gains into new infrastructure, ensuring everyone who benefits pays their fair share. The Metropolitan Line was built in the 1930s using a similar principle. The company who built the line bought up land along its length for housing, and used the uplift in land values to pay for the line. London desperately needs investment in its transport, energy and waste infrastructure. Fairness also demands we do something about these huge, unearned private gains to already-wealthy individuals and companies resulting from public investment. There are many other strong economic arguments for land value taxation - putting a dampener on the housing market by making it a less attractive option for investors; giving developers with land banks and other owners of brownfield sites a strong incentive to develop; and possibly using the revenue to reduce business rates are just three that were raised in the debate with Professor Travers by myself and other London Assembly Members. Land value taxation could reshape London's economy to promote useful economic activity, generate revenue for investment and fairly distribute the benefits. It's popular with economists of all colours and stripes, and was endorsed by the Institute for Fiscal Studies' Mirlees Review . So it's a shame Travers thinks the proposal is unlikely to make it into the London Finance Commission's final recommendations. While he "definitely won't not look at it", he