One of the few lunches I go to is the Westminster Property Association lunch and today was the day. John Gummer was the guest of honour.

I was sandwiched between two Tory councillors at the top table – and very charming they were. John Gummer in his speech argued that any idea of taxing the increase in land values when the owners benefit from new transport infrastructure was an unacceptable blow to the freedom to make money.

Needless to say, I thought he was entirely wrong. I believe there should be some way of capturing some of the financial windfall that comes from transport infrastructure – be that Site Value Rating or Land Value Taxation. (I’m not going to bore you with the details of these anorak schemes – but it is the way forward on this issue).