Member Article

Property tax ‘uplift’ would fund Crossrail 2, says Boris Johnson

The Mayor of London is keen to take control of all property taxes in London, with the aspiration of investing in City-wide projects such as Crossrail 2.

Boris Johnson has been fighting for devolved power over taxes in the city since his London Finance Commission in 2013.

In an interview with ITV News, the mayor admitted he has faced resistance from the treasury in his plight to take control of the proceeds of Stamp Duty and business rates.

However, Johnson thinks the Chancellor will allow City Hall to levy taxes for special projects like Crossrail 2.

The £25bn high speed rail project would link Hertfordshire and Surrey through a new tunnel from Tottenham Hale to Wimbledon.

Johnson said: “I don’t think the Treasury are going to want to say okay London, you can have the whole of Stamp Duty land tax because in the end that’s a huge slug of money.

“London is the powerhouse, they’d be losing colossal amount of discretionary power to the city. The way forward is to look at fiscal devolution for particular projects.

“The way to do it would be Crossrail 2, we should be financing that out of the uplift that is going to come from stamp duty, business rates, all the taxes that will be yielded by the economic growth and development.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .