Comment - Land Value Tax Campaign

Our Plan B

Written on 27 November 2011. Posted in Taxation.

Now that the policies the Chancellor first thought to apply are failing to work as intended, he is adopting an incoherent collection of ad hoc measures. It is starting to look like a panic response. It is dangerous. We would not expect him to take steps to apply LVT as we would wish to see it. It is not in the Tory DNA. But the principles from which we are working would nevertheless point to a set...

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...

Welfare for the rich – again

Written on 21 November 2011. Posted in Banking.

The government’s announcement of guarantees for 95% mortgages for house purchase, suppported by both Prime Minister Cameron and Deputy Clegg, demonstrates either an absolute lack of understanding of the nature of the problem, or moral cowardice, or both. The aim, we are told, is to “unstick the housing market”, which has stagnated due to the banks’ refusal to give mortgages...

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...

Compass gives no direction

Written on 7 November 2011. Posted in Economics.

If you were to ask us what we would do in the present state of the economy, our reply would be that we would not have got into this mess in the first place. In the early 1990s, when the Labour Party was developing its policies, we urged its policymakers to implement the system of land value taxation which the Campaign was set up to promote. Let us suppose that Labour had pursued our policies with...

Shops offered £1 rents on hard-up streets

Written on 7 November 2011. Posted in Economics.

An article in the Financial Times reports that landlords are offering hard-to-let shops at rents of just £1-a-year. With the number of boarded-up shops proliferating on high streets, retail landlords have become desperate to avoid paying business rates on empty units and are happy to sacrifice the rent. Chains such as Dixons and Card Factory have £1-a-year or business-rate-only deals on a handful...

Squatting soon to be a crime

Written on 7 November 2011. Posted in Economics.

The government is now driving through its proposals to criminalise squatting. We do not condone squatting but there are important principles at stake here.

Morality and the market

Written on 6 November 2011. Posted in Banking.

With protesters still camped outside St Paul’s Cathedral in London, the BBC religious weekly programme Sunday had a piece on morality and the market. The view by the protagonists for markets was that the market is neither moral nor immoral, but amoral. The sort of replies from those interviewed took the line that, “we are just trading”; “we produce a lot of wealth”;...

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