All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Land Value Capture
The Challenge: How to make Council Tax fairer
Monday 4th March 2024
3.00 – 5.00pm
Room T, Portcullis House
Chair: John McDonnell MP
Speakers:
John Muellbauer - Senior Research Fellow Professor of Economics at Nuffield College, Oxford University
Andrew Dixon - founder of ARC InterCapital, founding trustee of The Woodhaven Trust and an Enterprise Fellow at The Prince’s Trust & Founder of Fairer Share
Joe Bourke - Chartered Certified Accountant & Senior Lecturer at the Claude Littner Business School, University of West London
Heather Wetzel – Vice Chair Labour Land Campaign
Invitation:
Come and discuss options on reforming Council Tax to make it fairer for homeowners and tenants all over the UK. Speakers will be offering different opportunities to fundamentally tackle the unfairness of the current Council Tax system whereby someone living in a modest home in low property value areas pay the same amount of Council Tax as someone living in a multi-million pound mansion in high land value Central London.
The APPG on Land Value Capture recognises that every home has two elements to its value – the value of the building and the value of the land the home is located on. This discussion will focus on capturing land value to make the system more just. Land is provided free by nature with no cost of production and its economic value only arises from society’s demand to use it for homes, businesses, food production, public services, leisure etc.
If you think that Council Tax is not fit for purpose, please come and join the debate so we can work together to have a fairer tax on residential homes that takes account of land value.
The Challenge
Are we taxing the right sort of incomes?
Is there a fundamental flaw with the UK’s economy that distorts public and private investments and which underpins inequality – individual and regional?
Is there an innovative economic policy which all political parties could adopt to achieve their aims?
How can any government make our tax system fairer and unavoidable whilst tackling social and environmental ills that damage society?
The role of land and land wealth in our economy is often overlooked. Yet access to and the cost of land affects every aspect of our economy. Whilst this APPG focuses on land, the same arguments apply to all natural resources including, oil, gas, minerals, the spectrum, rivers and oceans, wind, solar energy, water etc.
Land is a gift of nature without any cost of production; land value and therefore land wealth only arises from our combined demand to use it for homes, businesses, food production, leisure, public services, transport, etc.
The APPG for Land Value Capture examines how land values arise, where land wealth is directed and the arguments to recapture at least a part of land wealth to reduce and/or replace taxes which distort our economy and which are too easily avoided.
The Office of National Statistics tells us that in “2020 land was the most valuable asset in the economy, estimated at £6.3 trillion, accounting for nearly 60% of the UK's net worth.”
For more information about our aims or to hear about our work, please get in touch with us:
Chair: John McDonnell MP
Contact: Joe Bourke j.bourke@bourkeaccountants.com (Secretariat for APPG for Land Value Capture, Coalition for Economic Justice www.c4ej.com)
Just some of the Environmental. Social and Economic benefits of shifting from distortive and avoidable/evadable taxes to an annual levy on the value of land:
Environmental benefits:
Speculation in rising land prices will cease and homes that currently remain empty will be used as homes not as an “investment”
The price of land will be closer to its true value, not any inflated price
Idle development sites and empty/underused buildings will be brought into full use increasing the supply of homes and commercial premises to buy or rent
We will use land more sparingly and efficiently and reduce demand to build on green spaces and in rural areas
Social benefits:
Because the price of land will be at its true economic value, homes will be more affordable to rent or buy enabling people to live nearer a place of their choice
More affordable homes in towns and cities means commuter times will reduce and the quality of life for many will improve
Business premises will become affordable to more thereby enabling currently lost skills and talents to flourish through new businesses, shared workspaces, co-operatives and community theatres etc
Economic benefits
As an annual levy on the value of land replaces distortive and avoidable taxes, businesses will not be paying so much in deadweight taxes
The economy will be more sustainable and good public and private investments will increase bringing more well-paid jobs
Recycling land wealth that arises from public services and investment provides a continuous income to maintain and develop places to benefit all
Economic and property booms and busts will become a thing of the past