Comment - Land Value Tax Campaign

Buy land – they don’t make it any more

Written on 13 November 2013. Posted in Economics.

“Investing in British land”. If people were encouraged to buy up grain when there was a famine, most people would denounce it as immoral. Double standards apply.

Crossrail windfall

Written on 31 October 2013. Posted in Economics.

Crossrail figures estimate the price of commercial space along the line will climb 10 per cent over the next decade, above an already rising baseline projection. Read more in FT article here.

Windfall time

Written on 30 October 2013. Posted in Economics.

It is the season of windfalls.

Buyers beware of Britain’s absurd property trap

Written on 10 October 2013. Posted in Economics.

“The government’s Help to Buy scheme is really helping those who wish to keep housing costly”, writes Michael Wolff in this analysis in the Financial Times. Nice to see that someone is following the same line of thinking as us.

House prices are spiralling at last

Written on 30 August 2013. Posted in Home-Owner-Ism.

House prices are spiralling upwards in what the Daily Telegraph describes as a “virtuous circle”. What a strange turn of phrase, because spirals are usually vicious. Nobody in their right mind would welcome spiralling food prices or spiralling petrol prices, so why is this good news? Read more in this Daily Telegraph article.

Pope Leo XIII’s error

Written on 25 August 2013. Posted in Religion.

I came across this in a blog recently. It is curious that the author should have chosen this passage from the 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, because it is precisely here that the document was in error, and it has set the tone of Catholic Social Teaching ever since.

Buy to let surges ahead

Written on 9 August 2013. Posted in Banking.

Lending for buy-to-let surges on, with the value of loans up by 31% compared to last year. Large numbers of people have now been priced out of buying and rents are rising. Information from The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) showed £5.1bn was advanced to landlords in the three months to the end of June, an increase of 21% on the first quarter. The trend will presumably continue, since the Governor...

London flat snip at £68 million

Written on 3 August 2013. Posted in Economics.

One Hyde Park – more information here. New residential properties in London are being snapped up by foreign purchasers. London is obviously a desirable location. We do not mind who buys the property or where they come from, as long as they pay the rental value of the land they were standing on. As we have always argued, it would give a solid source of revenue for the British exchequer and...

Here’s where Google’s profits end up in land values

Written on 19 July 2013. Posted in Economics.

In house prices round Google’s headquarters in Silicon Valley. Or more precisely, in the value of the land the houses are standing on. What a surprise!

York Railway Museum closure threat

Written on 21 June 2013. Posted in Public Transport.

There is a petition going the rounds against the proposed closure of the National Railway Museum at York. The local people are upset and argue that it an important part of the local economy. It is no doubt good for cafes and other retail businesses. That will be reflected in shop rents in the picturesque city centre, a benefit that could be clawed back if a land value taxation were in place.

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