About LVT - Land Value Tax Campaign

Wharf £700m project blocked

Written on 18 November 2009. Posted in What is land?.

One of our members sent this gem from last week’s Sunday Times, in case you missed it. The former Nissan UK director who spent 4 years in jail after being found guilty of one of Britain’s biggest tax frauds is blocking a £700m skyscraper development at Canary Wharf. Michael Hunt and fellow property investor, Michael Gross, own a ‘ransom strip’ – a piece of land vital...

How might LVT be implemented now?

Written on 3 November 2009. Posted in Transition.

LVT – a ten point plan for introduction

Is there an actual example of LVT legislation?

Written on 19 October 2009. Posted in Transition.

The former London County Council introduced a Bill to the 1938-39 Session of Parliament for the implementation of site value rating, based on annual rental values, within the administrative county of London. It was of course rejected, though, interestingly, on a technicality. The drafting of this Bill comes close to what we would regard as the model for the collection of annual rental values for...

How is land valued?

Written on 19 October 2009. Posted in Valuations.

Details of the practical techniques for land valuation are described in the reports produced by the surveyors who conducted two surveys in Whitstable, Kent, in 1964 and 1973. These days, the task would be simpler due the availability of computerised geographical information systems (GIS) which ease the task of number-crunching.Report of 1964 surveyReport of 1973 survey

FT columnist spells out LVT case

Written on 25 September 2009. Posted in Efficiency.

The respected financial journalist Martin Wolf has spelled out the arguments for LVT in this article in the Financial Times. Curiously, it is headed “Why Cable’s mansions tax is right”, because Cable’s mansions tax is not LVT. The author has merely used Cable’s proposal as a peg to hang the LVT case on. Hooray! Of course, as the Campaign has been arguing for many years,...

How much could LVT raise?

Written on 24 September 2009. Posted in Transition.

This question “how much could a land value tax raise” is constantly put to us. We in the LVTC have always answered with a vague “enough”, and then gone on to explain why we are vague on the subject. The question is in an inappropriate one. It is impossible to give a direct answer to the question because it depends on what existing taxes are removed.

£15.26 for two hours’ busking

Written on 22 August 2009. Posted in What is land?.

A while ago we posted Sounds from the Deep, an article about busking on the London Underground as an illustration of Ricardo’s Law of Rent and the effects of taxation. A Financial Times journalist actually tried it recently and earned just £15.26 for two hours’ busking at the foot of the escalators at Leicester Square According to the article, musicians can busk free of charge once they...

How should we be campaigning?

Written on 17 August 2009. Posted in What is land?.

Veteran campaigner Fred Harrison offers useful food for thought in this piece which was originally circulated as private correspondence but is here published with his permission. In his view, a completely revised approach is required, if we seriously want to place fiscal reform on the political agenda (rather than just continuing to talk among ourselves).

£27000 car parking space… and some land speculation

Written on 8 June 2009. Posted in What is land?.

This car parking space near Brighton sea front is for sale for £27,000. Nearby hotels are willing to pay £150 a week for the use of a parking space for their guests. Meanwhile, bang in the middle of town is this site which has been vacant since the late 1980s. For most of the time there has been consent for office development but the owners kept selling the site on and there has never been any...

FAQs about LVT and the planning system

Written on 5 June 2009. Posted in Valuations.

How would LVT interact with the British planning system? The Campaign received a list of questions on this subject recently from a research student. The questions and our responses are published here as they are so often raised.

You are here: