Not sure I agree with all of that (not least I don't understand why you think I think the problem is all in one place?). I certainly agree with your closing sentiments, but I do also think that it is just such people as you and I who feel that who can make a difference to the outcome by making our voices heard.

Here in Oxford the shortage is not small flats for example, but family homes. And I certainly cannot think of anyone I know who can simultaneously afford 2 or more bedrooms than they need (ie underoccupy) but not children! The reverse appears more to be the case - that they have children and then cannot afford to accommodate them properly.

I think if we are completely reliant on the financial sector we are scuppered anyway, but for the value that brings into the country it still involves a very small number of people (that's not retail financial services of course but international finance).

There do appear to be at least two different types of "market failure" though in the market - clearly if you have a city where house prices are out of reach but there is lots of land and even unoccupied housing, there's something else going on than what's happening in London and parts of the south east. I'd say that general inflation is more to do with the debt-money system, which is something that LVT would squeeze out wherever it is, regardless of local supply and demand issues.

I think there are plenty of opportunities for encouraging some economic activity away from the south east still though. For example, much of the high tech industry - both IT and biotech - and its attendant supply chain need not be clustered around Heathrow.

The other thing about LVT, especially if, like me, one wants it to completely replace other taxes on production like income and capital investment taxes, is that these taxes are tarrifs on production and international competitiveness. Replacing such taxes with LVT would help to diversify our economy away from reliance on the financial sector.