Blog - Land Value Tax Campaign

Irish government caves in to landowning interest

Written on 7 December 2011. Posted in Home-Owner-Ism.

The Irish government has scrapped plans to pass a law that would have enabled commercial tenants to remove upward-only rent review clauses from their leases. Ireland’s minister for finance said in his 2012 budget speech that it was not possible to develop a scheme to tackle the issue that would not be vulnerable to legal challenge or compensation claims from landlords. In the boom years of...

How to pay for infrastructure

Written on 29 November 2011. Posted in Public Transport.

The government has just announced its infrastructure programme as a means of getting the economy going. We have advocated this ever since the economy started to go bad a few years ago. But… a scheme like the London Underground’s Northern Line extension to Battersea ought to give rise to a land value uplift of several times what it will cost to build. This amounts to a gift to the landowners...

Don’t blame the cat for lapping up the spilt milk

Written on 25 November 2011. Posted in Tax Justice Network.

Professional anti-tax-haven agitator, Richard Murphy, has just published a book on the subject. No doubt it is a fascinating read. But Murphy knows perfectly well that a switch from present taxes to land value taxation would put the tax havens out of business, yet he has never said so clearly and unabiguously. Tax havens are the product of a rotten tax system. If the bucket leaks it is up to the...

Something murky from the past

Written on 24 November 2011. Posted in History.

If a land title is tracked back far enough, you will find a theft: enclosure of what was once common property. Or will you? Some, however, would argue that if you track it back far enough, you will find land that was discovered for the first time and therefore had no owner. This line of reasoning will hold up well enough as long it is accepted that land is not common property and can be owned...

Who is being taken for a ride?

Written on 16 November 2011. Posted in Public Transport.

In recent months, some major (and very expensive) railway upgrades have just been completed. These include the Chiltern Line which runs from London to Birmingham, and the Cotswold Line between Oxford and Worcester. The Chiltern Line improvements have brought places like Thame, Bicester, Banbury and Leamington within commuting distance, whilst the Cotswold Line development has done the same for places...

High Speed Rail – to whose benefit?

Written on 9 November 2011. Posted in Public Transport.

In an interview following the publication of the report of the inquiry into high speed rail, including the Government’s proposal for HS2 – the chair of the Commons Transport Select Committee, Louise Ellman stated her determination that those adversely affected should receive good compensation. We agree that people should not lose out because of the scheme. However, if the the scheme...

Council Tax freeze – Tories go with instincts

Written on 3 October 2011. Posted in Home-Owner-Ism.

We do not particularly approve of the Council Tax but it at least has the merits of being a property tax. A cut in this tax has the immediate effect of pushing up rents and preventing the fall of house prices to realistic levels. So in announcing a Council Tax freeze “to help pensioners and the low paid”, the Chancellor is running true to Tory instincts in protecting property values...

Take her best and walk away

Written on 4 September 2011. Posted in General.

Take her best and walk away Someone else can bloody pay This land will cope with come what may and I have expectation! Take her best and leave the rest For as with Abel, I am blessed And now with debt I cannot wait another day I have your ear for sympathy? The public good sounds good to me and now my work of love is done I hope with offer, you have come Within each famine nests a feast While...

A riot of comments

Written on 12 August 2011. Posted in General.

The riots in British cities have been followed, predictably, by a riot of comments. The emergency parliamentary debate produced nothing of value, but then how could it have done? People have tended to pick an explanation that fits their point of view. There is almost bound to be some truth in what they say because the causes are so complex and have so many dimensions to them. Widening inequality...

High speed vanity projects unfit for an austere age

Written on 3 August 2011. Posted in Public Transport.

A critique of the HS2 project by John Kay in the FT. It is a good and concise analysis, but it is a pity that Kay did not mention that the external costs and benefits of infrastructure schemes eventually turn up in land values. We would suggest that there is a need to refine the technques to evaluate these and develop forecasting tools. In principle this should not be difficult using multi-factorial...

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