We can’t let the land go
Polly Toynbee is right that many social problems are explained by the land price of houses having risen to 40 per cent of the asking price for new-build dwellings in the south-east. Why, therefore, does she follow the Barker/Prescott line of attracting yet more people to live in this high-land price area? Would it not be better to tax land values with a land value tax and use the revenue to build sustainable communities in deindustrialised places in the north and Midlands where the land is much cheaper and there is enough of the social and industrial infrastructure left to begin reversing the present abandonment?
DBC Reed
Labour Land Campaign