Friday 11 April 2014

London City Airport: Creative Thinking Required

I really like this provocation perpetrated by the 'New Economics Foundation' ("economics as if people and the planet mattered" ... yeah, OK, we get the drift):  scrap London City Airport!  There is a bit of reasoning behind it, too: if the similarly-sized ExCel next door contributes five times as much to GDP, their challenge merits an answer.

Mr Wadsworth will doubtless tell us that a proper land tax would decide all such issues, but pending that, how about C@W readers settling this one ?  So:
  • what use should the Airport site be put to ?
  • what other landmark UK site(s) should be put to better use ?  (site + use, please)
Awards after the weekend.  Extra marks for creative iconoclasm.

ND

15 comments:

Mark Wadsworth said...

London City airport is brilliant, as a passenger and when you're on the bank opposite watching planes land and take off.

You've got to be careful with LVT and land used for public transport, because good public transport enhances the value of land elsewhere in the area. So there's an argument for exempting it (but not the shops and so on).

Having said that, it would be a very good idea to scrap air passenger duty and have a per-slot duty instead.

If you charged each slot at LHR and LGW at £5,000 per take-off and per landing, that would raise more than APD.

Blue Eyes said...

There is a significant opportunity for economic and social regeneration between Grosvenor Place Horse Guards Road.

Blue Eyes said...

*and

Tim Worstall said...

Assault the offices of the nef, raze the building to the ground, sell the population into bondage and plough the land with salt.

Not economics frankly subtracts so much value from our economy that this will be a net positive.

Pogo said...

I think that The Palace of Westminster would be more use if it were to be converted to a lunatic asylum.


B*gger! Someone's already been and gone and done it!

Demetrius said...

If broke Manston were linked to HST1, which passes nearby plus improved other links, it would do as a replacement for London City.

Mark Wadsworth said...

As to change of use, shut down all Whitehall departments and have a crack team of half a dozen pen-pushers run things from Newport or Newcastle or somewhere.

Then all those lovely building can be rented out as flats or hotels, there's several billion quid a year for the taxpayer.

Home Office can be a giant laser shooting adventure playground, for the tourists when it's raining.

Blue Eyes said...

Newport? Have you forgotten the Human Rights convention?

The Thames is the perfect width for an 8-lane motorway bypassing central London.

Anonymous said...

Why not move it to Boris island and use the space for a Santa Pod raceway. I'm sure those Top Grrrr guys would agree.

CityUnslicker said...

I think we shoudl sell Scotland, build a big Wall of ice ebtween us and used the money saved in susbsidies to build every English family their own castle.

That's the economy, deficit and debt in pretty short order.

And still leaves Northern Ireland for future generations to consider...

Electro-Kevin said...

It would make a good drag racing track.

Electro-Kevin said...

Gah. Anon (6.30) beat me to it.

Jan said...

No-one mentioned Buck House. The Royal Family have too much property so Buck House could be converted into very expensive des reses for the oligarchs etc and bring in much needed cash for the government coffers and help pay down the debt pile. I'm sure they'd pay handsomely for such a prestigious address.

andrew said...

Maria Miller needs a new second home doesn't she?

Anonymous said...

Stonehenge to be broken up into authenticated mini-stones in perfect replica for use in gardens. You could sell as may sets of that as there are splinetrs of the True Cross.

Angel Of The North to be converted into sea defences along a stretch of Norfolk coastine under threat of erosion.

Channel Tunnel to be a sink-hole for floodwater when the next Big Rain comes.

Tower of London to be sold to highest bidder between Disney & Tussauds for conversion into the next Alton Towers (with real public executions on the hour.)