A land value tax would be borne by wealthy minor­ity

The UK’s hous­ing prob­lem is a func­tion of land value, which is a major
com­pon­ent of house prices (“Labour begins bid to shake up Eng­land’s plan­ning reg­u­la­tions”, Report, July 29). The prac­tical and moral way of deal­ing with the hous­ing short­age is to effect a national tax on land val­ues (land value tax or LVT).

In the UK, 70 per cent of the land is owned by 1 per cent of the pop­u­la­tion and this wealthy minor­ity would bear the major bur­den of the tax.

LVT would release more land and encour­age developers to make use of their exist­ing land stocks. LVT is a tried and tested method of rais­ing
rev­enue.

The Dan­ish bil­lion­aire Anders Holch Povlsen is the largest landowner in Scot­land and pays LVT on his hold­ings, but to the Dan­ish gov­ern­ment, not to Scot­land! LVT is a tax that can­not be avoided no mat­ter where the landowner lives.

Robert Hall
Shef­field, South York­shire, UK