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Football World Cup land lessons |
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Why can't we have a stadium like this? This question was on the lips of nearly every football fan in England in May and June this year, writes Paul Brandon.
The 2002 Football World Cup in Japan and South Korea was a showcase not only for the skills of the best players in the world, but for the spectacular stadia of the host nations.
The envy expressed by many UK fans was theresult of an ongoing saga involving the UK government's inability to build, or allow someone to build, a national football or athletic stadium. One of the central stumbling blocks is how to raise the funds without dipping into the pockets of working families in Britain.
Wounded by its handling of the Millennium Dome in London, the Labour Government has become very reluctant to be associated with another potential high profile failure. In one respect this reluctance to use the ’central pot' is good, but unfortunately there is no real discussion of a fair and equitable alternative, yet it exists.
The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, along with his nearest rival Steve Norris, is now openly speaking about funding transport projects from land value gains. This could provide the Government with an answer to its difficulties. For inspiration they need look no further than Transport Commissioner for London, Bob Kiley. As L&L exclusively revealed (January 2002) Kiley favours paying for community infrastructure by capturing rising land values.
The method Kiley is most familiar with is Tax Incremental Financing or TIF. Just before arriving in London he was involved in a scheme to raise $1bn through TIF, in which future increases in land values would be securitised in order to pay for a new subway in New York.
It would connect the existing line from Queens to Grand Central Station to the Hudson River in the West where in Manhattan a new complex to be called Olympic Square consisting of a sports stadium, convention centre and residential homes would be built. This project, which is supported by New York's new mayor, as well as his predecessor, is part of New York's bid for the 2012 Olympics.
The UK Government could in fact go further and structure the country's finance in a more efficient and fairer way. By using the principle of paying for benefits received, there is no reason why the Government couldn't introduce a nationwide scheme to collect the revenue generated from sites and locations. These ’land rents' could be used as the prime source of revenue for many of the nations needs.
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