Baroness Bakewell in conversation with journalist Hadley Freeman at Primrose Hill Library

A TAX should have been imposed on home owners who benefited from a sudden “gold rush” in property sales, Baroness Joan Bakewell told the Primrose Hill books festival on Sunday.

The broadcasting legend, who wrote The Tick Of Two Clocks about selling up and downsizing, was speaking about the “spurious” way her generation got mega rich from the housing market. Interviewed by journalist Hadley Freeman, her thoughts was part of a fascinating hour of discussion spanning party politics,

House of Lords reform, recol­lec­tions of a bygone era of Primrose Hill, and her shock at the death of Sylvia Plath. She had joined the host of famous faces appearing at a two-day festival to mark the milestone decade anniversary since Primrose Hill Library was saved and kept running by volunteers.

Baroness Bakewell, 89, who has lived in Primrose Hill for almost 60 years, said: “I feel very strongly about this. We didn’t make our money. We just moved in and our houses increased in value, no credit to us. And so we got rich in a sudden gold rush. “The sudden growth in wealth was completely spurious, it was as though we won the pools.”

The Labour peer added: “We were the generation that benefited from a false property boom. I said this to [former Labour leader] Ed Miliband, I think there should be a tax on sudden wealth. It could apply to the energy companies now.”

Baroness Bakewell said how she had come to Primrose Hill from Cambridge in the 1950s and bought a home in what was then a derelict soot-ridden parade for £7,000.

“I want everyone to have a decent roof over their heads and have a good community. It doesn’t seem much to expect, and yet we don’t get it,” she said. “I don’t know why it is so unbalanced. There ought to be limits on enormous wealth that goes into properties in capital cities. People will say that’s utopia.”

Asked about changes over the years, she said the pedestrianisation of Primrose Hill bridge that stopped lorries coming down the high street had made “a huge difference”, adding: “Anywhere that is quiet will attract writers who want to walk or think or whatever.”

She had previously said how the area was never the same after Sylvia Plath died and Ted Hughes left, describing the literary giants as “a formidable pair” and “both extremely attrac­tive people in terms of personality”, adding: “Sylvia was enormously highly strung. You know how greyhounds quiver? She was like that. Ted was a great hunk, the most gorgeous man.

“Sylvia had her first child when I had mine. Her suicide came as a complete shock. She was a private person and she wrapped herself up in her grief.”

Although a member herself, she described the House of Lords as “totally unequal” and agreed it was in need of reform.

On party politics, she criticised former prime minister Boris Johnson for “getting rid of mainstream thinking Tories”, while recalling how current Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer sought her advice about going into politics before he stood to be an MP in Holborn and St Pancras.  Now, when she saw him speak as leader, she said she thought: “I was there at the start of that.”

Later, asked how “she looked so fantastic”, Baroness Bakewell said: “Genes matter quite a lot. I’ve had an easy life. I’ve always enjoyed what I do. I had two very successful marriages.

“I have great friends and children who are nice to me, and grandchildren. To be part of a community, family and local, is enormously nourishing.”