This enthusiasm for taxation doesn't really motivate me to renew my subscription to the economist. There is something fundamentally wrong with taxing an absence of income. The French socialist party had a similar idea, they wanted to tax homeowners who occupy their property based on what rental income they would get if they were renting it out.
In London the primary cause of the housing crisis isn't unused lands. It is a combination:
1. very restrictive planning, which doesn't allow to build up except in a few limited spots. We end up with this absurd outcome of 3 storey houses everywhere and skyscrappers in 3 or 4 areas. Instead London would be much better off allowing to build 10 storey buildings everywhere.
2. Terrible infrastructure choices made decades ago which are now impossible to reverse. London has kept the narrow streets from XIX even when it had an opportunity to plan a better urbanism after the war. And the tunnels in the tube are too narrow to support the current traffic.
More taxes isn't really going to change any of that.
In London the primary cause of the housing crisis isn't unused lands. It is a combination:
1. very restrictive planning, which doesn't allow to build up except in a few limited spots. We end up with this absurd outcome of 3 storey houses everywhere and skyscrappers in 3 or 4 areas. Instead London would be much better off allowing to build 10 storey buildings everywhere.
2. Terrible infrastructure choices made decades ago which are now impossible to reverse. London has kept the narrow streets from XIX even when it had an opportunity to plan a better urbanism after the war. And the tunnels in the tube are too narrow to support the current traffic.
More taxes isn't really going to change any of that.