TRANSPORT for London’s former vice-chairman joined left activists at the weekend to demand a land tax on wealthy London landowners to raise funds for the Tube and other public services.

Dave Wetzel, who was TfL vice-chairman between 2000 and 2008, said a land value tax would be an alternative to massive cuts being imposed on the Tube by London Mayor Boris Johnson.

And he said if the tax was introduced across the economy it could amount to a third of GDP and £100 billion for London alone.

Addressing rail union RMT’s Fighting Tube Cuts conference on Saturday, Mr Wetzel said land had gone up in value from £3.5bn to £11bn once the Jubilee Line had been completed.

“Land values can pay for new underground lines, pay wages, meet running costs and reduce fares,” said Mr Wetzel, who claimed the land rent would be much less easily avoided by landowners than tax, given that if they hold the land then the rent becomes payable.

“If we claimed land rent then we wouldn’t be worrying about overseas tax evasion — you can’t take land away.”

Mr Wetzel also questioned how far the land values of major landowners would plummet if there was not an underground network running in London.

“The fact is that keeping such services keeps the land values high.”

Mr Wetzel, who is also president of the Labour Land Campaign, said land is held in common by everyone, just as much as the sea and air, and is not any individual’s private property.

RMT negotiator John Leach pointed out that TfL are looking to cut spending by £4.2bn over the next seven years and that plans to shut ticket offices would make up just 6 per cent of this figure.

He indicated that a land value tax would be a better alternative to cutting salaries by 20 per cent by forcing workers to reapply for their jobs with worse terms and shaving £638 million off their pensions.

Labour MP John McDonnell said: “We have to have alternatives on questions like management and funding. Ideas like the land value tax are catching the wind.”

The tax would capture some of the value added to property as a result of public investment, specifically spending by the government in providing new and improved transport services.

Currently the real winners of the huge expansion of the Tube, East London Line and the building of Crossrail are rich London landowners who have gained massively from increases in land value.

RMT acting general secretary Mick Cash said: “This is a wealthy city, where property is stockpiled as a global asset without making any contribution to the people of London whatsoever and it is time that we used that wealth for the benefit of all — not just the oligarchs, the dukes and the non-doms.

“We need a system of taxation that funds and expands transport and the rest of our public services and which tackles the massive issue of inequality in London right at its source.”

It has broad support from Britain’s trade union movement and has been a proven success outside the country, including in Hong Kong.