Whether the message sinks in

Jock — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 17:26:41 +0000

Whether the message sinks in or not is another matter. But someone with the respect that Shelter has talking about it is a-good-thing no doubt!

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Mark Wadsworth — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 15:00:03 +0000

That's not a bad article, really.

Shelter Chief Exec on Land Value Tax and Home Ownership

Jock — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 10:58:50 +0000

Just a link really - in case you missed it Adam Sampson, Chief Executive of Shelter, writes in the Guardian today on the undesirability of perpetuating the myth that home ownership is wealth generating and calls for more tax on property rather than less, including land value taxes:

Adam Sampson: The price of house mania

...What we have is a classic disjunction between two policies, housing and taxation. Promoting affordable housing means making it more difficult to gain wealth by investment in home ownership. It means increasing taxation on the increase in the capital value of homes, not reducing it. It means reviewing the council tax system or examining the possibility of a land tax. It means using inheritance tax to reduce the growing wealth divide.

And this goes far beyond mere policy. Home ownership is driving a return to wealth disparities that we have not seen since the Victorian era. Whereas the space that rich people occupy is increasing, the poor are living more cramped lives. And the rise in house prices is reducing social and geographical mobility, with people far less able to move from the north to the south or from poorer areas to richer ones...

Jock's Place - Shelter Chief Exec on Land Value Tax and Home Ownership - Comments

Whether the message sinks in

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Shelter Chief Exec on Land Value Tax and Home Ownership