On Thu, 28 Jun 2007, John B wrote:

On 27 Jun, 22:19, Mr Thant
wrote:

My guess: We have an anouncement on Crossrail soon.

It already has the government's full support - the current hurdle is
getting it through parliament, which isn't really something you can
announce. I don't think any progress can be made until there's been a
few months of consultation whatnot over the recent Woolwich changes.
The only thing Brown could announce is scrapping it.

However, as any fule kno, the stumbling block for the last few years has
been on where the money's coming from. If Gordon wants to gain
popularity and credibility with London voters and business leaders, then
an announcement on Crossrail financing - obviously conditional on the
passage of the bill - would be a good way to do so.

Three words: land value capture.

LVC is blindingly obviously the best way to fund large infrastructure
projects like this. The reason it hasn't been used yet is that there isn't
a legal framework to do it. El Gordo could announce that he was going to
put one in place, thereby showing people that he backs public transport
and that he's still a financial innovator, all for zero cost to the
Treasury.

tom

PS This document contains a few tidbits of info on LVC, starting on page
8; by coincidence, it also discusses privatisation of trunk roads, with
multiple competing routes between cities, as came up in another thread:

http://www.policyinstitute.info/AllPDFs/Bruce2Sep05.pdf

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