Press releases

BUDGET DAY - 24 MARCH 2010

Tax Revolution Required - Civilisation Under Attack

The Labour Land Campaign is demanding Labour Chancellor Alastair Darling launches a tax shifting revolution to maintain and further fund the key services of a decent civilised society.

The campaign says it shouldn't be a choice between cutting costs or raising taxes to pay back the national debt caused by bailing out the bankers. We need to shift the tax burden onto community created land values. This will allow the deficit to be paid back over time and fund public services whilst allowing hard earned wages to stay in working people's pockets.

To start with the campaign wants the income tax threshold raised from £6,475 to £20,000 and the resulting shortfall met by a new annual land value tax.

Labour Land Campaign Chair Louanne Tranchell says 'The Labour Party should join with the Co-operative Party and back annual land value taxation. Our experts are on hand to help. We eagerly await the call.'

The Co-operative Party's manifesto states 'The Government should replace council tax and national non-domestic rates with a land value tax. While this would be a new method of taxation in the UK, countries such as Denmark, Hong Kong and Taiwan utilise land values to help their economies. Local Authorities in parts of Australia, New Zealand and North America have all adopted local forms of land value taxation. This is likely to not only improve economic stability but also stimulate investment in more productive elements of the UK economy over the medium to long term.'

ENDS

For more details contact Press Officer Paul Brandon on 07749 481600 or visit www.labourland.org

Notes for editors

1. The Co-operative Party, affiliated to the Labour Party, is the second largest UK centre left party and has representation in both Houses of Parliament (29 Co-op-Labour MPs and 12 members of the House of Lords), the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh and London Assemblies, as well as over 350 elected local councillors.

2. Annual land value taxation was adopted at Co-operative Party Annual Conference in Edinburgh, September 2009. The Co-operative Party Manifesto 2009: See: http://party.coop/pdf/dat_news_file-70.pdf

Archive

Copenhagen and Budget need the 'Cool' Tax

8 December 2009

The Labour Land Campaign today called on the Chancellor and the delegates at the Copenhagen climate summit to back the Cool Tax by implementing an annual land value tax and removing taxes on wages.

There could be no better way to 'cool' the economy and our planet than by an international agreed policy of shifting taxes away from harmful productive activity and on to community created land values and common resources - currently exploited by landowners and multinationals the world over.

The campaign is calling for a tax revolution and the Chancellor to commit to its policy of raising the income tax threshold from £6,475 to £20,000 and the resulting shortfall met by a new annual land value tax.

Louanne Tranchell, Chair of the Labour Land Campaign says, 'because the land value tax discourages land hoarding and land speculation better use is made of our planet and urban sprawl is replaced by more efficient use of brownfield sites in towns and cities.'

Support is growing for this fresh approach. Backing for an annual land value tax has been growing throughout 2009 from leading economic journalists and recently featured in a debate on BBC Question Time.

ENDS

For more details contact Press Officer Paul Brandon on 07749 481600 or visit www.labourland.org

Note to Editors:

1. For more information about the 'Cool Tax' and its green credentials please visit the Green section of our manifesto.
2. Clive Anderson brings land value taxation into the debate on Question Time, December 2009.

Co-operative Party adopt land value taxation

25 September 2009

The Co-operative Party has adopted land value taxation as part of their manifesto for the next general election. It represents one of the most significant and radical moves in the labour movement for many years.

The Party's 2009 manifesto states "The Government should replace council tax and national non-domestic rates with a land value tax. While this would be a new method of taxation in the UK, countries such as Denmark, Hong Kong and Taiwan utilise land values to help their economies. Local Authorities in parts of Australia, New Zealand and North America have all adopted local forms of land value taxation. This is likely to not only improve economic stability but also stimulate investment in more productive elements of the UK economy over the medium to long term."

Robert Evans, Co-operative Party member says "We have 29 MPs in Parliament giving us a base to put the case for an annual land value tax. It's a policy to tackle the housing crisis without the burden falling on the poorest citizens in society."

Louanne Tranchell, Chair of the Labour Land Campaign says "The Co-operative Party are leading the way by adopting land value taxation. This policy is the radical remedy for our troubled economy. We now urge the Labour Party to back our tax shifting vision by lifting the tax burden of working people everywhere. We are ready to help."

Michael Stephenson, General Secretary of the Co-operative Party, said:

"As we seek to bring stability to the financial system, it is only right that we aim to do the same for the property markets. Instability here has been a key determinant of every recession that we have faced over the last 30 years. Given this, a key policy concern for the future must be to keep growth in house prices consistent with other parts of the economy."

ENDS

For more details contact Press Officer Paul Brandon on 07749 481600 or visit www.labourland.org

Note to Editors

1. The Co-operative Party, affiliated to the Labour Party, is the second largest UK centre left party and has representation in both Houses of Parliament (29 Co-op-Labour MPs and 12 members of the House of Lords), the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh and London Assemblies, as well as over 350 elected local councillors.

2. LVT was adopted at Co-operative Party Annual Conference in Edinburgh, September 2009. The Co-operative Party Manifesto 2009: See: http://party.coop/pdf/dat_news_file-70.pdf

UK Economics Journalists back land value taxation

23 July 2009

This year has seen a number of influential UK economics journalists back land and site value taxation as a measure to tackle our failing economy.

This month Martin Wolf of the Financial Times said 'Arguments for taxes on site values are strong' with Larry Elliot, economics editor of the Guardian, following with 'Darling... could deter speculative holdings of property through a land value tax'.

Sir Samuel Brittan, Financial Times economics commentator, and Ashley Seager, economics correspondent at the Guardian, backed land value taxation earlier this year at a seminar at the House of Commons hosted by the Coalition for Economic Justice.

In April the Labour Land Campaign called on the Chancellor Alastair Darling to start a tax revolution by backing its tax shifting vision in his budget. The Campaign wants the income tax threshold raised from £6,475 to £20,000 and the resulting shortfall met by a new annual land value tax.

President of the Campaign Dave Wetzel says "The case for an annual land value tax grows by the day. The people's long term prosperity and the country's stability depends on implementing this measure. Our experts are on hand to help with its introduction."

ENDS

For more details contact Press Officer Paul Brandon on 07749 481600 or visit www.labourland.org

Note to Editors:

  1. Please visit www.labourland.org for links to articles by Martin Wolf and Larry Elliott.
  2. Report of the Coalition for Economic Justice at the House of Commons seminar on land value taxation is available from www.c4ej.com.

We need a tax revolution : People's Budget 2009

20 April 2009

The Labour Land Campaign is urging Labour Chancellor Alastair Darling to start a tax revolution by backing its tax shifting vision.

The Campaign wants the income tax threshold raised from £6,475 to £20,000 and the resulting shortfall met by a new annual land value tax.

The Campaign has joined with other like-minded bodies in the Coalition for Economic Justice and there is a growing and impressive list of supporters of land value taxation including Financial Times journalist Sir Samuel Brittan, Prof Iain McLean, Professor of Politics– Oxford University and Ashley Seager of The Guardian

The tax shifting vision would release billions into the pockets of millions of working people and their families to spend and make the economy work for them and not landowners, speculators and bankers.

Annual land value taxation is a proven environmental success story elsewhere in the world. Officials in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA described land value taxation as crucial to the revitalization of their city as it encouraged empty sites and buildings back into use.

Labour Land Campaign Chair Louanne Tranchell says "With the financial crisis, the time is ripe to introduce a system to collect the unearned income from the value of the land, which arises from community activity and services and through investment in transport and infrastructure funded by the public purse."

ENDS.

For more details contact Press Officer Paul Brandon on 07749 481600 or visit www.labourland.org

Note to Editors:

  1. It is exactly 100 years since the Liberal Government put land value tax in the forefront of their 1909 'People’s Budget' supported by political giants like Lloyd George, Asquith and Winston Churchill.
  2. Report of the recent Coalition for Economic Justice at the House of Commons seminar on land value taxation is available from www.c4ej.com/

Chancellor receives proposal on resolution for repetitive boom and bust

13 February 2009

The Labour Land Campaign is a member of the Coalition for Economic Justice (CEJ) which has sent an open letter to the Chancellor on proposals for ending the boom-bust cycle, with an invitation to a Seminar to be held at the House of Commons on 24 March, 2009.

Dear Chancellor,

Proposing a long-term resolution to repetitive economic crises

I am writing this open letter to you on behalf of the Coalition for Economic Justice (CEJ). In response to the seriousness of the current economic crisis a number of think tanks, charities and pressure groups across the political spectrum recently decided to join forces as the CEJ. We propose the introduction of an annual Land Value Tax (LVT) to replace or reduce existing taxes on enterprise and labour in order to prevent future economic crises and alleviate the current one. The resolution below, passed at our first meeting sets out our broad position. (Set out at the foot of this letter is a list of the organisations concerned.)

Every economic crisis in living memory has been preceded by an unsustainable and speculative rise in property values, commercial/industrial as well as residential. The link between property values and bank and building society lending is strong and causal. Excessive lending fuels property prices.

We recognise, of course, that you and your colleagues in government are concentrating on the difficult task of dealing with the current turmoil. We support much, if not all, of the measures you are taking to restore confidence in the current economic climate, provide for effective credit systems, introduce proper controls on the financial sector and re-establish a sound economy. Our concerns are concentrated on the need to avoid future crises and to provide long-term security and equity to the economy. However, members of the coalition can already offer proposals that will begin to deliver a clear path out of the current economic situation.

An annual tax on land values – it is the land element that causes property values to rise – would exert a restraining influence on property values and give the government some control over this key determinant of economic stability. Such a tax would also cut the ground from under excessive and imprudent bank lending and remove much of the speculation in land.

In the present market economy the justification for a rise in prices is that it brings forth increased supply. As the land supply is fixed there can be no such increase. As economists from Adam Smith onwards have recognised, land is a monopoly. Rising property prices therefore serve no useful economic purpose. As such, they are the natural and obvious target for taxation. The LVT thus collected on an annual basis would help to reduce those taxes, many of which are unpopular (eg council tax and stamp duty), including income tax, national insurance and business rates which directly discourage production.

LVT is a progressive tax falling most heavily where the benefit to the community is greatest and most lightly where the benefit is least. As the tax is based on permitted land use – not on current use (or non-use) value – LVT will penalise those who hold land out of use. It will therefore encourage land use and stimulate economic activity. With LVT introduced, there will be little or no incentive to speculate in land and hence property. Much of the credit which currently supports land (property) values would no longer be needed and would be available to finance the production of goods and services. LVT is easy and cheap to collect and difficult, indeed virtually impossible, to avoid.

A development land tax, or its latest manifestation, the community infrastructure levy, being a one-off levy on development which inhibits land use, has virtually all the disadvantages that an annual LVT does not. We would be glad to expand on this.

In our view the economic case for the introduction of LVT is a very strong one. So, indeed, is the ethical case. Since the community has created the enhanced land value it is only right that the Government (through an annual LVT) appropriate it for uses, eg infrastructure and local services, that benefit the whole community. We recognise, however, that the political basis for taking this forward, while feasible, requires deeper consideration. We are available to work with you and your colleagues to facilitate its development.

We have set out our views in the hope that you will meet the following requests:

I look forward to receiving your response and hope it will be positive.

Yours sincerely

John Lipetz

Chair
Coalition for Economic Justice

For further information contact

John Lipetz, 02077945343, johnlipetz @ hotmail.com
Tony Vickers, 07950202640, tonyvickers @ phonecoop.coop
Dave Wetzel, 07715322926, davewetzel42 @ googlemail.com
Robin Smith, 07786078836, robinsmith3 @ gmail.com

New pamphlet launched by Labour Land Campaign

23rd September 2008

The Labour Land Campaign launches a new extended edition of the pamphlet Land Value … for Public Benefit by Jerry Jones. It comprises eight chapters, covering the following topics:

  1. How land acquires value – and who benefits
  2. Reclaiming land value for public benefit – the case for a land value tax
  3. How Harrisburg in the US was transformed through a land value tax
  4. Valuing the land – how to measure land values
  5. Differences between a land value tax and other land and property taxes
  6. The case for replacing the council tax with a land value tax
  7. Land value tax and overall tax policy
  8. A strategy for introducing a system of land value tax in Britain

In addition, it contains a summary of proposals for a new fairer tax system, and two appendices covering the topics:

The whole pamphlet can be downloaded here. [PDF File : 282KB]

Ends

Contact info@labourland.org for more information.

Lyons - a whisper not a roar!

21st March 2007

The Labour Land Campaign has called upon the Government to reject the Lyons Report on financing local government and instead to introduce annual land value taxation as the fair, economic and efficient replacement for Council Tax and Business Rates.

The Lyons report is bad news for the lost generation of young homeless households needing affordable housing.

It is bad news for young people excluded from the housing market.

It is bad news for the unemployed and workers seeking fair wages.

It is bad news for business and enterprise.

Whilst recognising that inflated land values are created by the whole of society, Lyons dismisses the idea of an annual land value tax but wants to continue with a tax system that penalises producers and rewards idle landowners.

Brian Hodgson, The Chair of the Labour Land Campaign said today “With his timidity, Sir Michael Lyons has missed this opportunity to rectify the damaging local taxes of the past. The UK needed a “Roar” from Lyons; instead all we hear is a “timid whisper”. His report is a failure, a missed opportunity to shift the burden of taxation onto landowners and to replace the unpopular Council Tax.”

The report has at least one very valuable suggestion (Recommendation 8.5) that "the Government should develop proposals for the taxation of derelict property and brownfield land"

The Labour Land Campaign notes that Sir Michael Lyons is outlining the changes that he thinks should be implemented in the short term to address the most urgent problems in the system, but also "with a view to paving the way for greater ambition in future."

We strongly urge the Government to start planning immediately for a future annual Land Value Tax, which could be introduced in four or five years time when the official Land Register could easily have been completed.

Ends

Contact Dave Reed
01604 644743
dbcreed@hotmail.com

Notes for Editors:
The Lyons report acknowledged that "A number of groups, from the Land Value Taxation Campaign to the British Retail Consortium, supported the idea of a land value tax."

Crunch time over hoarded land

22nd February 2007

The Labour Land Campaign welcomes the research by the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) published today (Thursday 22 February) that shows how much brownfield land is unused in the UK.

The report shows that in London alone landowners waste enough brownfield land for 60,000 new homes!

Landowners always complain that they are hindered by the planning system but the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) recently reported that there is enough land lying unused WITH planning permission to deliver 30,500 houses in London each year until 2016!

The RTPI further reported that in the South East of England there is a six-year supply of land with planning permission.

Meanwhile accusations of land-hoarding are rife in Ireland. In Eire the Minister of the Environment has told suspected land hoarders "Use it or lose it".

Jim Claydon, President of the Royal Town Planning Institute is reported in The Independent (on 17th February 2007) as claiming "All landowners including housebuilders maintain land values by managing supply. It is not in their interests to release large quantities of land because this deflates its value. If we are to build houses at a faster rate we cannot rely on market forces... It will require government intervention".

Such intervention might be the kind of Land Value Tax threatened in Recommendation 8 of Kate Barker's latest report on Land Use Planning.

Carol Wilcox, the Secretary of the Labour Land Campaign has said to land campaigners "the UK needs an Annual Land Value Tax on all land if we are not only going to rid the UK of the scourge of land hoarding but introduce a more just and efficient economy where homes and business premises become more affordable and the whole population shares land wealth that is provided with no cost of production.

Even the landed gentry who support the CPRE might benefit from a Land Value Tax if it gave them a fair (not artificially inflated) price for land near towns, villages and main roads suitable for housing."

Ends

Contact Dave Reed
01604 644743
dbcreed@hotmail.com

Notes for Editors:
The Labour Land Campaign promotes the collection of land rent for public benefit within the socialist/trade union/co-operative movement.

Press release : Complete the land registry!

2nd February 2007

Despite the advent of aerial and satellite survey methods , the ownership of almost 50% of the land in England and Wales is not known by the Land Registry. More was known of land ownership at the time of the Domesday Book (of AD 1086) and the so-called Second Domesday book "The Returns of the Owners of Land" of 1876. The 1876 book can, according to Kevin Cahill, author of "Who Owns Britain?", still be used to work out who owns the nearly 50% of land in England and Wales, mostly estates of the landed gentry, that is unregistered, so little has the regime of Death Duties affected the inheritance of big landed estates.

The Land Registry's Annual Review for 2005/6 states: "Our 10-year Strategic Plan contains six objectives for Land Registry to complete by 2016: No. 3 create a comprehensive Land Register for England and Wales".

But closer investigation by the Labour Land Campaign has revealed that "comprehensive" in the above quote does not mean complete. We invite democrats and those who seek a fair tax system to join our campaign to lobby the Lord Chancellor to fund the Land Registry to publish a complete survey of land ownership in England and Wales preparatory to the introduction of a modernised Land Tax to commemorate Lloyd George's historic People's Budget of 1909, the last time the recovery of land values for the People was attempted.

Ends

Contact Dave Reed
01604 644743
dbcreed@hotmail.com

Notes for Editors:
The Labour Land Campaign promotes, within the socialist/trade union/co-operative movement, the collection of land rent for public benefit.

Press release : Stamp Duty freezes the housing market

24th January 2007

A recent survey* shows that the sale of houses is being slowed down by Stamp Duty with 50% of those surveyed citing this tax as a reason why they cannot move house. So, thousands of people are prevented from moving to more suitable accommodation, taking up jobs in different areas or reducing commuting times. When the housing market fails to function efficiently it is bad for the whole economy.

Point-of-sales taxes on property, like Stamp Duty, always have this effect (as will the proposed Planning Gain Supplement which acts as a disincentive for landowners and developers to build houses in the first place). Housing expert, Professor John Muellbauer of Nuffield College, Oxford has described the Planning Gain Supplement as an 'unwise tax' and a 'step backwards'.

On the other hand, an annual Land Value Tax, as suggested in the House of Commons on 15th January by Dr Vincent Cable, the Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, would raise much more revenue, more smoothly, by tapping into the rise in the value of land which, at £150,000 and upwards for a typical family plot, is the real reason why house prices have risen so far beyond ordinary people's reach.

Contact Dave Reed
01604 644743
dbcreed@hotmail.com

Notes for editors:
*This report was conducted by Prime Move.com and announced on 10th January 2007.

The Labour Land Campaign promotes the collection of land rent for public benefit within the socialist/trade union/co-operative movement.

Press release : Barker Review - Final Report

12th December 2006

Whilst not endorsing Kate Barker's proposals to reduce local involvement in planning decisions nor her plans for permitting building on Britain's precious green belts, the Labour Land Campaign does welcome and support her suggestion that land speculators should pay an annual charge on urban sites they keep out of use.

These empty sites not only deny local people homes, jobs, leisure activities and retail opportunities but they encourage vandalism and crime as well as creating the conditions for unnecessary urban sprawl.

Kate Barker's limited land tax on empty sites is a much better proposal than her previous recommendation for a Planning Gain Supplement only on new developments.

We call upon the government to build upon this advice and to introduce a comprehensive Annual Land Value Tax on all land.

Notes for Editors:
For further information please contact Carol Wilcox on 01425 279307 or carol.wilcox@labourland.org

Press release : Housing market set to 'freefall'

18th July 2006

Claims that house prices will soar 50% within six years have been condemned as "highly irresponsible". The prediction came yesterday (Monday 17th July) from the National Housing Federation. It based its demand for more government action on a report it commissioned from Oxford Economic Forecasting.

OEF based its projections on the assumption that interest rates would average 4.5% over six years - taking the average house price to £300,000.

But Fred Harrison, research director of the Land Research Trust, warned that using this forecast would discredit housing policy in Britain.

"Already, the government's housing policies are in a mess. For decades, now, successive governments have failed to secure a sufficient flow of houses at affordable prices. To try and 'lean on' the government with shady forecasts does no-one any good," claimed Harrison.

Last year, the general consensus of forecasters was that house prices had already reached their peak - and some predicted a crash in prices of 20% or more. Harrison warned that these predictions were false, and that the housing market was merely pausing. Now, according to Rightmove, Britain's biggest property website, the annualised rise in house prices has recovered and is exceeding 10%.

Harrison published his forecast of house prices last year in Boom Bust: House Prices, Banking and the Depression of 2010. In this, he analysed 300 years of evidence and concluded that the top of the housing market would be reached at the end of 2007. "That's when the housing market will stall, and go into freefall over the following 18 months. By 2010, Britain will be in recession, and there is no chance of house prices now rising 50% above today's values," said Harrison yesterday (Monday 17th July).

"For the OEF forecast to come true, building societies would have to advance mortgages at multiples of more than 10 times the average salary. That is never going to happen. It is irresponsible of the Housing Federation to use these numbers to blackmail government into a housing strategy that is likely to fail.

"If the agencies concerned with affordability are really worried about the people who need homes, they should get down to some serious research into why Britain has been locked into policies that have consistently failed for the last 200 years. Unfortunately, the Treasury's hope that weakening the planning system will solve the problem is just whistling in the wind."

The source of the problem is to be found in the fact that it is relatively cheap to supply bricks and mortar and the labour to construct houses.(see the £60k house), but it is expensive to find the land to put them on anywhere where there is work, amenities or natural beauty.The solution is to tax land values, so derelict and under-used land (subject to current democraticly determined use) is forced onto the market and the land element in house prices decreases across the board. But the Treasury has no plans to address this issue, preferring to tax workers and business's earnings, even when they are pushed to the limits by high rents, mortgages and property prices. Thus the problem of affordability will still be with us when the economy comes out of the recession in 2012 - when the average house price will probably be below what it is today.

It should be noted that Fred Harrison, uniquely, predicted the timing of the last crash in his 1983 book 'The Power in the Land'.

Notes for Editors:
For further information please contact Carol Wilcox on 01425 279307 or email carol.wilcox@labourland.org
Fred Harrison can be contacted on 020 8943 3352.