Futures Forum: A solution to our housing problems: limit landowners capturing enormous windfall financial benefits
Futures Forum: A solution to our housing problems: separate the ownership of land and housing
Futures Forum: Council tax should be replaced by a land value tax
Futures Forum: Land Value Uplift Tax >>> "Public investment on or near a piece of land significantly increases its value wherever you are."
Futures Forum: A solution to our housing problems: consider reforming the planning system, abolishing the greenbelts, introducing taxes to deter speculation, and limiting foreign ownership.
Although it's been around for some time:
Futures Forum: Henry George and the land-value tax
The idea is now really going mainstream:
New Tory Thinktank advocates Land Value Capture and Restricting Buy to Let
JUNE 25, 2018 / ANDREW LAINTON
Guardian
Private landlords have put home ownership beyond the reach of at least 2 million families, research shows, while Britain has built only half as many new homes as France over the same period.
New Tory Thinktank advocates Land Value Capture and Restricting Buy to Let | Decisions, Decisions, Decisions
With the full piece here from today's Guardian:
Buy-to-let has skewed housing market and must be curbed, says thinktank
Tory MP says tax breaks for landlords have helped price younger people out of the market and calls for stronger role for councils
Private landlords have put home ownership beyond the reach of at least 2 million families, research shows, while Britain has built only half as many new homes as France over the same period.
The radical report from the new Conservative thinktank Onwardrecommends ending or severely curtailing tax breaks for buy-to-let and private landlords, a stronger role for local councils and major reform of the planning system to allow communities rather than developers to lead the process.
The report, which was written by Neil O’Brien, a former aide to George Osborne who also worked for Theresa May at No 10, calls for government intervention in the housing market, including giving London councils the power to limit foreign ownership.
“We need to change the balance between the rented sector and home ownership,” O’Brien said. “We should protect existing landlords but discourage more people from investing in rental property, because the buy-to-let boom has bid up prices and reduced homeownership among younger people.”
Previous governments have already acted to curb tax relief on mortgage repayments and maintenance for landlords, but the thinktank says it is still a privileged form of investment that reduces the number of homes available for owner-occupiers while reducing the amount of capital available for more productive investment.
“The UK is one of the cheapest countries for investors involved in residential rental investments,” the report finds.
Emphasising the link between shortage of supply and rising home prices, the report offers radical ideas for increasing the number of new homes.
It argues that planning permission for a hectare of agricultural land can add as much as £2.5m to its value. If the community could benefit from some of the increase, the report argues, it could be used to pay for the kind of services and infrastructure that new developments sometimes lack.
Instead of piecemeal development, it recommends that councils should have the power to put together land and create new settlements with services. It looks across Europe, where most local authorities have strong powers to initiate and shape development and link it to public transport.
It proposes better support to help councils plan new developments drawing on expertise from across the sector, as well as abroad. It also recommends much higher density urban occupation, where the UK lags behind most other comparable countries.
The report wants councils to be able to borrow to buy development land that hey could sell on with planning permission, allowing the local community to benefit from the increased value.
Will Tanner, a former Downing Street policy adviser who is now director of Onward, said it was possible to tackle the housing crisis without concreting over the green belt.
“If the government wants to regain the support of young people ... it must be unflinching in its pursuit of greater home ownership. That means hard choices like ending tax breaks for new landlords and giving councils much stronger powers.”
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