Why shouldn't the people who benefit pay for infrastructure?

There's a certain amount of shock, horror, being expressed at the idea that property owners near Crossrail 2 stations might chip in some of their value gains to pay for Crossrail 2. It being a reasonably obvious observation that being close to a station running in and out of London increases property values.

Home owners living within a certain radius of Crossrail 2 stations could be forced to stump up millions to pay for the project.

Transport for London is considering introducing a levy to fund the £30 billion scheme, which will run from Broxbourne in Hertfordshire to Epsom in Surrey, through central London.

It would create three zones stretching a kilometre around each station. Each zone, mapped out in concentric circles, would have a scaled charge, known as the Transport Property Charge, descending with the distance from the station, according to Estates Gazette.

This is of course close to, a variant of perhaps, land value taxation. The society around you has increased the value of your land. Why not a tax to pay for the process of increasing your land value? 

We might also note that this is not uncommon in transport circles. Hong Kong's metro is largely paid for in this manner, the Jubilee Line to Canary Wharf, the more recent Northern Line to Battersea. Property owners benefit from this, why not property owners pay for it at least in part? 

There most certainly can be specifics wrong with such charges - come on, this is government, of course there will be errors. But the basic idea, that those who profit from infrastructure pay for it seems fair enough.

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