Please sign and share this UK Parliament petition to Reduce taxes on productivity such as income tax, VAT, corporation tax, property tax, and others. Implement a Land Value Tax. That is, a tax on land, but not on any buildings or human improvements on it, taken at regular intervals. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/657040.
At 10,000 signatures, government will respond to this petition. At 100,000 signatures, this petition will be considered for debate in Parliament. Created by Tim Crinion, Petition runs to 9 October 2024.
20 Feb 2024: "Why we need a green land value tax and how to design it", by John Muellbauer. Article in Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) .
This article argues that a green land value tax – a charge on the land plus a charge on the house minus a discount related to efficiency of the building’s energy usage – would help resolve conflicts around meeting climate goals, equity and housing affordability, reduce intergenerational injustice and benefit sustainable growth. It outlines an evolution from existing property tax systems that would be aided by a simple new tax deferral mechanism, removing much of the sting of property tax reform.
Jan 2024: Please sign this open letter demanding a Council Tax revaluation in Scotland. The letter is directed at the First Minister of Scotland, and therefore your signing is not for public circulation.
19 Jan 2024: What Should be Exempt from a Land Value Tax?, by Benedict Sptingbett
4 Jan 2023: LVT response in The Guardian (Carol Wilcox) - LVT history in the Labour Party
Parliament TV Channel - Treasury Select Committee Inquiry into Business Rates - discusses land value tax, direct link to at 10m26 to 10m35 (19th June 2019)
Land for the Many: Changing the way our fundamental asset is used, owned and governed is an independent report commissioned by the Labour Party. (19/06/2019)
Labour’s land reform proposals are putting the horse before the cart, By: Merryn Somerset Webb19/06/2019
Is the UK property market ready for a land value tax? Yahoo Finance 12th June 2019
Ed Milliband Reasons to be Cheerful Podcast: This Land is Our Land 10th June 2019
John Humphrys - Land: Time to tax it? 7th June 2019
A land tax can be fertile ground for Labour Philip Collins The Times June 7th 2019
This Land isn't your land:how England privatised its greatest asset Jon Trickett new Statesman 4th June 2019
Want to tackle inequality? Then first change our land ownership laws George Monbiot The Guardian June 4th 2019
Jim Pickard & Judith Evans (Financial Times): Housing associations call for £42bn to build social homes … One of the main things we are asking for is reform around land and planning to enable land value capture, 16 October 2018
Joey Gardiner (Planning Resource): How Cambridgeshire's land value capture mechanism will work … A new land value capture mechanism has been announced by a combined authority, but experts say its implementation faces challenges, 4 October 2018
Luke Murphy (Red Pepper): Wealth inequality is skyrocketing and the housing market is out of control. It’s time to tax the land … wealth inequality, a poorly functioning housing market, an economy focused on unproductive investment and macroeconomic instability are all negative consequences of our current treatment of land within the UK economy, 27 September 2018
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy launches global campaign to promote land value capture … Implementing land value capture has never been more important to the future of cities and towns large and small, 7 February 2018
Scottish Federation of Housing Associations: Planning Bill must commit to longer-term housing investment … land value capture (LVC) can do more to increase the delivery of homes and better places, 7 February 2018
Michael Donnelly (Planning Resource): Labour land value plan 'would cut housing construction costs by a third' … enabling the state to acquire land at cheaper rates would cut the cost of building new housing by over a third, 7 February 2018
Tom Copley (CityMetric): The UK needs to rethink its local taxes. It’s time for land value tax … The most expensive property sold in the UK in October last year went for just shy of £16m in Westminster. The cheapest was £18,500 in County Durham. The owner of the Westminster property would pay just £250 a year more in council tax than the owner of the County Durham property, 16 January 2018
Tom Copley (CityMetric): The UK needs to rethink its local taxes. It’s time for land value tax … The most expensive property sold in the UK in October last year went for just shy of £16m in Westminster. The cheapest was £18,500 in County Durham. The owner of the Westminster property would pay just £250 a year more in council tax than the owner of the County Durham property, 16 January 2018
Laurie Macfarlane (for the Scottish Land Commission): The housing land market in Scotland … despite the compelling economic case for land value taxation, the policy has struggled to gain political traction in the UK and many other advanced economies, 16 January 2018
Adam Zucheti (mybusiness): Goods and Services Tax rise a ‘stupid panacea’ … Australia was a tax haven in the 19th century when the Crown’s revenues came from land – it can be again, 16 January 2018
Philip Clarke (Farmers Weekly): Time to shake up farm tax reliefs and subsidies … Brexit provides a great opportunity to reform the tax regime … you could also use the taxation system to reduce the concentration of land ownership in fewer hands, 8 January 2018
Brian Wilson (The Scotsman): Half of Scotland is owned by just 500 lairds … land value tax is an old idea whose time has come, 22 December 2017
Kate Macintosh (The Guardian): Here’s how we can fix Britain’s housing crisis … the cause of the so-called “housing crisis” is not a lack of accommodation but a malaise of acute mal-distribution, whereby those with the financial muscle over-consume in an orgy of “buy to leave” while social cleansing and rough-sleeping escalates, 8 December 2017
Chris McCall (The Scotsman): Land reform ‘essential’ to solving housing shortage in Scotland … the public sector should intervene to improve the operation of the market and increase the supply of land for new housing, 7 December 2017
Michael Savage (The Guardian): Tony Blair backs Labour’s ‘land value tax’ to tackle housing crisis … the new tax, which sees the value of underlying land taxed rather than property, should replace council tax and business rates to create a “fairer and more rational system of property taxation”, 3 December 2017
Serban V.C. Enache (Splice Today): One Bank to Beat them All. Imagining a better world … Taxing the value of natural monopolies (the land-value tax), and not taxing labor, consumption, and man-made things (goods and improvements to the land), 21 November 2017
Monidipa Fouzder (Law Society Gazette): Budget preview: Stamp duty in chancellor's sights? … there is ‘near consensus’ among economists and policy experts that an annual property or land value tax, or an improved version of council tax, could raise the same revenue as stamp duty, providing incentives aligned with housing policy objective, 20 November 2017
Common Space: New data shows the cost of private renting has got “out of control” in Scotland … Social housebuilding can be made significantly cheaper by legislative change such as land value capture and compulsory sales orders which will reduce the cost of land in the construction process, 14 November 2017
Joe Bourke (Liberal Democrat Voice): Launch of All Party Parliamentary Group on Land Value Capture … the taxation of land is the most economically efficient and rational form of taxation, the least open to evasion and avoidance and the most relevant to contemporary needs such as better utilisation of land for housing, 13 November 2017
Carol Wilcox (Financial Times): Land value tax would create a virtuous circle … increased public spending would lead to increased land value, leading to increased land value tax, leading to increased public investment — a virtuous circle, 10 November 2017
Laura Sharman (LocalGov): Report calls for land market reform … Reforming the land compensation rules, and enabling local authorities to purchase land at prices that do not reflect prospective planning permission, would loosen up the land market, prevent hoarding and douse speculation, 10 November 2017
Emily Ashwell (New Civil Engineer): Reworked Crossrail 2 plans submitted … considering a new land value capture model to help fund the £31bn scheme, 8 November 2017
Noah Smith (Bloomberg): Faster Growth Begins With a Land Tax in U.S. Cities … a land-value tax is an efficient and fair way to take a city that now works only for lucky prosperous landowners, and turn it into a place where the working class can afford to make a decent life, 24 October 2017
David Leam (Construction News): London's 5 biggest infrastructure challenges … where additional funding streams can be found … From the land value capture ideas being explored by TfL through to fiscal devolution, 21 September 2017
John Simpson (Belfast Telegraph: Scottish devolution can give NI food for thought … how the new Land Commission can influence the supply and cost of land for housing and the potential for "some form of land value-based tax", September 19 2017
Rajesh Kumar (New Delhi Pioneer): Cities to grow taller, faster … help in Value Capture Finance (VCF) through innovative urban development funding and revenue generation … by tapping a share of increase in value of land and other properties like buildings resulting from public investments and policy initiatives, 17 September 2017
Rail Technology Magazine: Developing London’s stations key to catering for population growth … [Land Value Capture] as a sustainable form of development, as a source of funding for new and improved infrastructure, as a means of creating mixed-use urban centres at transport hubs, and as a way of strengthening and connecting communities, 13 September 2017
John Digney (letter to the The Guardian): How to tackle the power of the aristocracy … The real solution is through the fiscal system by means of land value taxation … the only way to recognise the axiom that the land belongs to all of us, 10 September 2017
David C Stevenson (Money Week): Why taxation need not be a dirty word … three taxes that don’t currently raise significant sums for the UK exchequer: a carbon tax; tax on land value increases; and … inheritance tax, 1 September 2017
Adam Creighton (The Australian Business Review): Land levy an efficient and moral revenue raiser … Taxing the unimproved value of land, at a low flat annual rate, is the most efficient, and even moral, way of raising revenue, 28 August 2017
Judith Evans (Financial Times): Major land reform urged to fix UK housing crisis … through changes to existing legislation, local authorities and other public bodies could be given the right to buy land at lower prices than they currently can, in a move that would enable them to take a similar approach to Prince Charles at Poundbury — and thereby fund more housebuilding, 23 August 2017
Peter Apps (Inside Housing): Morning Briefing: could land reform help solve housing crisis? …While private developers are allowed to do this 'land value capture', public developers cannot, 23 August 2017
Brijgopal Ladda (Indian Express): Infra Project Financing: Capitalising on value creation … VCF includes a range of financing instruments used across the world: land value tax, fee for changing land use, betterment levy, development charges, transfer of development rights, premium on relaxation of floor space index and floor area ratio, vacant land tax, tax increment financing, zoning relaxation for land acquisition and land pooling system, 19 August 2017
Joseph Bebon (Solar Industry): Rhode Island Governor Celebrates New Legislation To Promote Clean Energy … “By streamlining permitting processes, simplifying land value taxation policy of renewables on farm lands and providing long-term stability to our renewable energy programs, we are taking important steps toward fostering a stronger clean energy economy.”, 10 August 2017
Cai Ordinario (Manila Business Mirror): Asian Development Bank expert cites benefits of land value capture for congested urban centers … LVCs capture the increase in the value of land generated by improved accessibility through taxes. These taxes are then “recycled” or invested in much-needed infrastructure projects that can improve access in congested cities., 7 August 2017
Jim O’Rourke (Inner West Courier Inner City): Secret report says Parramatta Rd could raise $2 billion from developers for the State Government … Jodi McKay, who battled bureaucrats for six months to have the secret “value capture assessment” report … said it was evidence the government favours developers over the community, August 7, 2017
Proshun Chakraborty (Times of India): Nagpur Municipal Corporation to tap source of avenues through Value Capture Financing … Once the VCF system is in place, the NMC will be able to raise funds from land value tax, 2 August 2017
James Palmer (Conservative Home): The Land Value Cap offers the chance of more affordable infrastructure … Currently, developers and landowners are the biggest winners from state-funded infrastructure improvements. The Government is very unlikely to recoup the initial cost of the project, 30 July 2017
JP Asher (The Comet): Could new garden cities following Letchworth’s lead help solve the housing crisis? Yes, say town planners in new book … The core value of land value capture which is reinvested into the community is still considered to be innovative and exciting to local authorities and groups interested in providing great places to live and work, 29 July 2017
Philip Davis (Engineering News): A Realistic Role for Value Capture … make the infrastructure funding mix more equitable by seeking more from those who benefit most from new infrastructure while reducing the burden on other taxpayers, 26 July, 2017
Edwin Loo (Financial Times): The secret of Singapore’s development master plan … a comprehensive system of land value capture … worked to create a virtuous cycle where development helps to pay for itself by unlocking the funds necessary to bring forward the infrastructure needed to support further development, 12 July 2017
Pat Sweet (CCH Daily & Accountancy): Welsh government asks public for tax ideas … suggested looking at a workforce development levy, sugar tax, sunbed tax, land value tax and a water tax, 4 July 2017
Adam Creighton (The Australian): Land value soars 13.5%, raises raises question of tax … “A land tax is not only harder to avoid and more efficient but also surely more equitable, since the ‘social dividend’ that accrues to land owners, particularly in our major cities, simply via the effluxion of time as growth occurs around them, is really impossible to justify”, 30 June 2017
Tim Worstall (Forbes): Bengaluru Gets It Right – Land Value Tax To Finance The Metro … A metro station uplifts the value of the local land so why not capture some of that rise in value to pay for the station itself, 24 June 2017
Jon Stone (The Independent): Labour looks to replace Council Tax with a Land Value Tax … Party to launch a review into tax backed by many economists due to its efficiency, 17 May 2017
Merryn Somerset Webb (MoneyWeek): Sirius Minerals and the case for a land-value tax … Why should a group of people who have done nothing in particular – taken no risk, had no ideas, dug no holes – receive a huge windfall just because they happen to own land in the right place at the right time?, 16 May 2017
Michael Donnelly (Planning Resource): Tories pledge land value capture powers to deliver 'new generation' of social homes … to strengthen the ability of councils to capture land value uplift, 15 May 2017
Brian Feeney (University of Queensland): The missing piece of the affordable housing puzzle - taxing 'unearned gains' … Who is entitled to the increase in land value created by planning approvals, new infrastructure, population growth or the general development of town and cities?, 10 May 2017
Andrew Heaton (Property News): Land tax better than value capture … value capture schemes are less efficient compared with broad based taxes as they require greater precision in valuation and create more opportunities for corruption, 10 May 2017
Tony Rakhal-Fraser (Trinidad Guardian): Exploring the most equitable tax system … replacement of income, corporation taxes and even Value Added Tax with A Site Value Tax, 7 May 2017
James Buckley (CoStar): Labour vows to take on big business over rates … Corbyn said of a possible land value tax to replace business rates: "I'm interested in the idea... We are looking at it", 11 April 2017
Patrick Noble (Resilience): Reclaiming Commons through Land Value Tax, or a Wing and a Prayer … we also need to reverse the parasitic, rentier effects of enclosure and marry basic income to her true partner – land value tax, 11 April 2017
Laura Edgar (The Planner) : Royal Town Planning Institute: Approach to capturing development gain not adequate … The current measures to access rising land values do not benefit the public enough and are stalling housing delivery, according to the RTPI, 10 April 2017
Andrew Keith Walker (Renegade Inc.): Understanding Land Value Taxation … While productive members of society earn money to pay their taxes, landowners are unproductive earners who pay their taxes through land rent, which is paid by people who generate economic activity, 8 April 2017
Julia Park (Building Design): Is it time to tax land value uplift for community benefit? … uplift in land value has been taxed at rates from 100% in 1947 to zero today … a sensible level of taxation could help fund social infrastructure and affordable housing, 6 April 2017
Edwin Loo (Royal Town Planning Institute): Lessons from Singapore about land value capture … its system of land value capture and control over land is a model for the world in terms of its predictability, transparency and ability to ensure that the process of land development benefits society as a whole, 3 April 2017
Kirsten Lawson (Canberra Times: ACT Greens push government to investigate extending land tax to vacant rental properties … For too long the taxation system has benefited investors over home owners, contributing to housing stress for many Canberrans, 24 March 2017
Alex Tarrant (New Zealand Property): How NZ could fix property taxation, face down the NIMBY problem, overhaul the RMA and drive sustainable urban development – OECD Report … much of the recent increases in property values reflect rising land values rather than improvements; this suggests that land values may be the more appropriate basis for the tax, 20 March 2017
Michael Gray (Common Space): SNP conference backs call for land taxation to transform Scotland … bring down the extortionate cost of land purchases … and “stops land owners from hanging onto it for speculative purposes”, 18 March 2017
David Dewar (Planning Resource): How a plan to pilot land auctions would capture planning gain … a technical report by TfL last month which detailed options for land value capture models, 17 March 2017
Kate Allen (Financial Times): Rethinking the Economics of Land and Housing — theft and freedom (book review), 14 March 2017
Jacob Saulwick (Sydney Morning Herald): Parramatta Council proposes pushing ahead with value-capture scheme … an ambitious scheme to make property developers help subsidise the $1 billion in infrastructure needed for the fast-growing area, 10 March 2017
Christopher Cheung (Vancouver Tyee): Should Developers Pay to ‘Ride’ the Benefits of Transit? … Considering that it was the public’s investment in transit that lifted the land value, shouldn’t the public also share in that increase?, 7 March 2017
Keith McNeill (Clearwater Times):Tax the land, not the improvements … We pay too much attention on how governments spend our money and not nearly enough on how they get it, 7 March 2017
TransportXtra: Tax land value rises to fund London transport projects … Taxing land value uplifts arising from transport and regeneration schemes would provide a new funding stream for transport infrastructure investment, 17 February 2017
ExpoTrade Press Release: Value Capture Looms Large in Victoria … not an additional tax, but a more efficient and fair allocation of benefits and costs, 15 February 2017
Wichit Chantanusornsiri (Bangkok Post): Land tax tweaked to spur activity … Resistance from big landlords, most of whom are influential, was so strong, 14 February 2017
Bill Batt (Times Union): Albany should consider land value taxation … a revenue-neutral tax shift to the value of the land alone would encourage investment and protection of these parcels and also foster development of the many vacant plots in the core of the city, 12 February 2017
Tim Worstall (Forbes): India's Economically Sensible Zero Tax Rate On Long-Term Capital Gains … we will be richer—more economic activity will take place—if we tax land and consumption rather than income and capital. 6 February 2017
Felicity Collier (Morning Star): Khan backs trial of land value tax ... the tax — which would replace existing property taxes — could result in more than 276,000 new homes being built on under-used land in London. 24 January 2017
Tom Copley (Greater London Authority Planning Committee): Mayor positive about Land Value Tax Trial ... the tax — which would replace existing property taxes — could result in more than 276,000 new homes being built on under-used land in London, 23 January 2017
Vera Sprothen (Wall Street Journal): Critics question Australian infrastructure spending … mechanisms to ensure that private real estate developers — not just the public purse — help pay for infrastructure, 12 January 2017
Harry Blain: Only developers, estate agents and homeowners will cash in on Crossrail … By 2025, 60% of Londoners will be renters – they pay for Crossrail through taxes and fares but have nothing to gain from soaring rents and house prices, 3 January 2017
Vandana Ramnani: Government now eyes profits from increased value of land around big projects … is likely to introduce a value capture financing model for all infrastructure projects in 2017-2018, 3 January 2017
Sarah Marasigan: A tax we should all agree on … land value tax seems like such a no brainer but … real estate owners and developers have been getting rich off the status quo and have funded many a politician to ensure things stay as they are, 8 December 2016
Steve Skinner: Value capture to start sharing road tax load … rural landholders on the edges of cities … suddenly find themselves with a $40 million, $60 million dollar payday that we, the people, have effectively granted to them … when they haven’t done anything productive. They’ve just sat on the land. 2 December 2016
Andrew Heaton: Value Capture Could Be Mandatory on Federal Projects … The basic notion is that those who directly benefit from the project most should contribute to a portion of its cost, 29 November 2016
John Digney: We should shift taxation burden on to rental value of land … The value of land … is a publicly-created value, reflecting overall public demand for location, and is enhanced by the provision of publicly-funded services and infrastructure, 25 November 2016
Olusesi Isaac: Why Osun [Nigeria] introduced Land Use Charge … Land use charge is the single most salient way of attaining equity between tax payers, 20 November 2016
South Wales Argus: ‘Lift the fog of confusion around business rates’ says Assembly committee … willingness to fully explore the potential of alternative forms of taxation for business, including Land Value Tax. 18 November 2016
Government of Australia: Using value capture to help deliver major land transport infrastructure: roles for the Australian Government, 16 November 2016
Joey Garrison: How to pay for a $6B transit plan? Nashville chamber floats 7 ideas … The strategy of capturing land values would call for a special tax on property in designated areas around transit infrastructure that is to benefit from future transit expansion, 10 November 2016
Radheshyam Jadhav: New tax regime to boost Pune Municipal Corporation projects … The ministry of urban development is working to come out with a comprehensive Value Capture Financing framework for its efficient and optimal use across the country as a method of financing infrastructure and enhancing the finances of urban local bodies, 8 November 2016
Business Standard: Tapping value added to finance urban infra projects through innovative Value Capture Financing … Traditional resource mobilization through direct sale of land, the most fundamental asset owned and managed by States and Urban Local Bodies is an inefficient form of resource mobilization and the Ministry is keen about land monetization more effectively though value capture, 6 November 2016
Mark Sands: Abolishing these 20 taxes will help the poor, says the IEA … They would be replaced by simpler system that would include new taxes on land-value and an effective VAT charge on elements of housing costs including rents, while income and distributed corporate profits would be taxed at a flat rate of 15 per cent, 2 November 2016
MENAFN Press: Cities Address a Key Challenge: Infrastructure Needs … a municipality’s ability to benefit from the rise in real estate value generated by infrastructure improvements … the cost is [currently] paid by the government and the communities, but only private property owners benefit, 29 October 2016
Jenna Carlesso: Hartford Officials Discuss Hiking Taxes On Vacant Properties, Bushnell Park Area Considered … The goal is to tax people with vacant land at a rate that encourages them to develop because they're already paying as if they had a building on it, 26 October 2016
David Crowe: NSW land tax plan to reboot market in home affordability push … A key state has opened the door to a radical tax overhaul to ease the cost of new housing, raising the prospect of scaling back ¬onerous stamp duties and ¬imposing land taxes in order to free up more homes for a new generation of buyers, 25 October 2016
Anthony Flint: At Habitat III, a Rethinking of the Urban Development Paradigm. The concept of “value capture” surfaces as a possible path to more equitable growth … the concept of value capture may be the most conservative revolution in city-building at hand, October 21 2016
Herbert Barry: Federal taxation of land would be preferable to income taxation … taxation of mostly wealthy owners of valuable land is preferable to taxation of earnings and other income. 3 October 2016
Tom Goodfellow: The UK is sinking deeper into property inquality -here is why ... capital is flowing rapidly into real estate. And increasingly, governments are waking up to the need to effectively capture some value from these investments, for the public good, 22 September 2016
Erich Jacoby-Hawkins: Poor taxation needs to be removed in order to let economy grow … a fair and just economy is based on using value created by nature and the community to fund government. They did this by fully taxing the value of land and any increase in land value, 20 July 2016
Fred Foldvary: The principles of a good tax system point to land value taxation as optimal … Taxes on income, sales, and buildings fail on the neutrality criterion. Only the land value tax passes, as it does not affect the land rent, Jun 26, 2016
Jamil Ghaznawi: Land tax to stimulate growth in housing sector … Lower land values will make development more financially viable and therefore stimulate additional activity … and revenue from the land tax will allow the government to undertake additional housing projects, 19 June 2016
Lisa Falconer: “We should be bold and ambitious” … an opportunity here to ensure that all land pays its fair share of local rates and that we move towards a comprehensive system of land value taxation, 9 June 2016
Release of CEJ General Meeting Slides and Audio - Dec 13, 2016 4:30:41 PM
Release of CEJ General Meeting Slides and Audio - Dec 13, 2016 4:30:41 PM
Economist.com - the-economist-explains: why-land-value-taxes-are-so-popular-yet-so-rare (10 Nov 2014)