Coalition for Economic Justice
REPORT: HOUSE OF COMMONS SEMINAR ON LAND VALUE TAXATION
Organised by The Coalition for Economic Justice
Hosted by Vince Cable MP
Panel of Speakers:
Sir Sam Brittan, Financial Times
Fred Harrison*, Land Research Trust
Prof Iain McLean, Professor of Politics– Oxford University
Ashley Seager, The Guardian
Molly Scott Cato, Green Party Economics speaker
David Triggs, Henry George Foundation
* Author of Boom Bust: House Prices, Banking and the Depression of 2010.
There was standing room only in Committee Room 5 at the House of Commons on Tuesday evening for a lively and stimulating seminar hosted by Vince Cable. The Coalition for Economic Justice – a recently formed grouping of concerned organisations across and beyond the political spectrum– believes that the private appropriation of community-created site values is lethal in its effect on our economic arrangements, dooming every economic upswing to an ultimate collapse. To end this cycle of boom and bust it is vital that the Government has some control over the level of property prices. Land value taxation would give it that control.
The House of Commons seminar held last Tuesday was aimed at
parliamentarians and policymakers. It examined the advantages of land
value taxation, how it might be introduced and how transitional
problems could be dealt with.
As Sir Sam Brittan saw it, the case for
LVT was clear and simple. But perversely, people find this difficult to
grasp; they expect complexity in taxes. Being a tax on unearned value
increment, LVT was no disincentive to Labour or Capital. As a temporary
expedient, pending the full introduction of LVT, he advocated the
auctioning of planning permissions.
Ashley Seager of The Guardian cited instances where public
expenditure had led to massive increases in property (i.e., land)
prices. In one case, the building of a school had led to such a big
increase in local property prices that teachers in the school could not
afford to live in the area. As the land of this country is provided
free of charge by nature, “rising property prices do not raise national
wealth one single penny”. They serve no useful economic purpose and are
an obvious target for taxation.
Professor Iain McLean explained how, as a member of the
independent expert group set up by the Calman Commission, he was
looking at LVT as a way of financing public services in Scotland and
Wales. LVT would replace council tax, business rates and stamp duty.
From a Green perspective (Molly Scott Cato), land is a trust for
the people, its life-giving properties to be preserved from one
generation to the next. LVT, which aims to curb private profiteering
from the nation’s patrimony, was seen as a valuable tool in this
connection.
The groundwork for the panel discussions was set out by David Triggs
in his opening address. “The challenge that confronts those interested
in establishing a just and equitable division of the fruits of
production lies essentially in recognising that land values impound
that part of the value created which is attributable to factors
external to the individual, e.g., the country’s infrastructure, the
system of governance, law and order and the density of population. It
is manifestly unfair to tax the individual on what he produces while
those community-created values are provided tax-free to the benefit of
the landowner. These land values, arising essentially from location,
should be the primary source of taxation.”
Fred Harrison reinforced this message. He showed how failure to
collect location value led to diminished opportunity and life
expectancy at the marginal location.
James Black (a sixth-former) said LVT made common sense to the young and the opportunity should not be missed.
This seminar is the first step in a campaign to interest
parliamentarians in the formation of an all party parliamentary group
on Land Value Taxation.
Organisations involved in the CEJ include:
Christian Council for Monetary Justice (CCMJ), Global Justice
Movement (GJM), Henry George Foundation (HGF), Land is Free (LF), Land
Value Taxation Campaign (LVTC), Labour Land Campaign (LLC), Liberal
Democrat Action for Land Taxation and Economic Reform (ALTER),
Professional Land Reform Group (PLRG), School of Economic Science
(SES), Social Liberalist Party (SLP), Systemic Fiscal Reform Group
(SFRG), The 1909 Group
You may find more information on many of these organisations on our Links Page .
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