Incentives to form mixed status neighbourhoods

Jock — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 01:12:58 +0100

Michael Meadowcroft has a letter in today's Guardian about how middle class folk tend not to live in the "rough areas" where gang culture finds it all too easy to get established. He says:

Gangs grow out of our divided society | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics:

How many teachers, solicitors, social workers, politicians and police officers live in such neighbourhoods even when their work closely involves them there? All too often they commute from the suburbs and reinforce the picture of success meaning a chance to get out. Unless there are financial and housing incentives to live and work in one and the same community it will be very difficult to dislodge the feeling of bitterness among those who do not have a choice.

Of course, we wouldn't want a "real liberal" interfering too much with social engineering to create such incentives, but his party does support LVT (although not as a replacement for income taxes and the like which would increase the incentive). Under LVT the savvy professional household would find that they would pay less tax by moving to poorer areas (ie with a lower Land Tax) and in the process take their economic activity and expenditure into those areas creating more prosperity there.

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Incentives to form mixed status neighbourhoods