Common objections - Land Value Tax Campaign

It’s all about supply… not.

Written on 2 April 2021. Posted in Planning and construction.

From Works In Progress One consequence of Covid has been plunging rents in cities across the world, as tenants flock out of city centres and the long-term rental market is flooded with former Airbnb properties. This has left tenants jubilant, and landlords panicked. Unsurprising so far. Sydney, Australia, is no different. But what is remarkable is that rents and house prices in Sydney were falling...

Scottish LVT “challenging”

Written on 5 August 2020. Posted in Practicalities.

The Scottish Land Commission has on its website a report produced by the University of Reading on the prospects for introducing a land value tax in Scotland. The report sets off in the wrong direction by defining land value tax as a tax based on selling prices. The Scottish report, which uses the word ‘challenging’ thirty times in 119 pages, provides an excellent set of arguments against...

A dialogue of the deaf

Written on 22 December 2014. Posted in Land is not important.

In response to an article on housing policy in the Observer, which needless to say did not mention LVT but came up with a list of tinkering measures ME: There is no solution to the housing problem without land value taxation – that is a prerequisite.Without LVT, all the measures listed in the article are just useless tinkering. With LVT, most of them would not be necessary REPLY FROM Lune13:...

Incidence of property taxes

Written on 9 December 2014. Posted in Practicalities.

I regularly get into arguments with people who think that property taxes are paid by tenants. Now it is true that tenants in the UK are nominally responsible for paying the property tax, be it Council Tax or business rate. But the tax cuts into the amount a landlord can charge in rent. In other words, the incidence of the tax is on the landlord. Yet so many people refuse to believe this and do not...

Land and wealth

Written on 17 May 2014. Posted in Land is wealth.

Land values are real capital – genuine wealth. Actually, no. These articles by Mark Wadsworth demolish some common misconceptions about land, which currently bedevil discussion on the subject. They have surfaced yet again in the wake of Piketty’s new book. • Land is just capital like any other kind of capital (link to article) • House prices will plummet and wealth will be destroyed...

Small farmers have nothing to fear from LVT – continued

Written on 16 August 2013. Posted in Business and farming.

To see the effect of LVT on farmers, consider the UK as an example. Under the present regime of taxation on labour, goods and services, residential land, comprising 3.5% of UK by surface area has a rental value of £200 billion a year, commercially used land, comprising 0.4% of the UK by surface area, has a rental value at least £30 billion a year. and farm and forestry land = 80% of the UK by surface...

Small farmers have nothing to fear from LVT

Written on 16 August 2013. Posted in Business and farming.

A lively discussion has developed in Sweden around the effect of LVT on small farmers. There are not many of them but they are an influential pressure group. Small farmers in Sweden have traditionally opposed LVT, unlike their counterparts in Denmark. The issue of small farmers also surfaced in Britain a few years ago, at a fringe meeting at an LibDem annual conference. If LVT is levied on the selling...

Shouldn’t taxes be broad-based?

Written on 29 May 2013. Posted in Land is wealth.

One of the arguments used against land value taxation is that “taxes should be broad-based”, sometimes expressed as “Why focus on one narrow asset class?” Clearly, it would be silly to try and raise a disproportionate amount of tax from any one particular “asset class” (cash, buildings, jewellery, works of art, plant and machinery or share prices) as the tax...

Killer arguments against LVT

Written on 24 January 2013. Posted in Practicalities.

All the really silly arguments against LVT are debunked here. No doubt they will be trotted out at tomorrow’s second reading of Caroline Lucas’s Land Value Tax Bill.

Clearing up LVT misconceptions

Written on 11 November 2012. Posted in Planning and construction.

The Private Member’s Bill promoted by Caroline Lucas calls for a feasibility study for the introduction of a Land Value Tax. This Bill is expected to have its second reading debate on 25 January 2013. I checked on We feel it important to clear up some misconceptions appearing in the press – such as ‘LVT is a stick to beat property firms …’ and it will ‘shift the burden...

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