Apparently, the value of a house in the catchment area of the best school in Muswell Hill adds up to £200,000 to the price of a house (scroll down a bit). And seeing as you can get your money back (and then some!) when the kids have left school and you can trade down to a house outside the catchment area, the wealthy (who are admittedly paying for the school via income tax etc) get the best state education for free or a negative overall cost.
Now, the best solution for education would be a voucher system, but in the absence of that, Land Value Tax would encourage councils to provide better schools. It's simple really, the better the school, the higher the land values and hence the more tax the council can collect. And as the wealthy would be paying more in Land Value Tax than before, we could cut more damaging taxes on production, profits and income*.
The same logic applies to policing and everything else - if councils stopped wasting all that money on a load of crap and concentrated on things that make an area more desirable then everybody wins - we get better schools, more bobbies on the beat and cuts in other taxes.
* Other property-related taxes would be scrapped straightaway - Council Tax, Stamp Duty Land Tax, Inheritance Tax, Capital Gains Tax and the TV licence fee, and yes, pensioners would be allowed to defer LVT to be repaid out of their estate.
The CPS Loses Yet Again...
27 minutes ago
9 comments:
Should parents in such areas get a refund if a good school declines over time!?!
PS Perhaps good schools are good because they manage to exclude the poor!
If school worsens (or they have a lottery instead of catchment areas) then parents lose out massively under current system. If we had LVT and school worsened (which it wouldn't) then the parents would at least get an LVT reduction.
MW
I live in the catchment area of Fortismere School and am, of course, grateful for the mugs that buy houses in order to get their offspring into that grossly overrated piece of counter-educational dross. If they are genuinely overpaying by £200,000 then I suggest that they stay where they are and send their children to a decent private day school - it's cheaper (annual fees (say) £12,000 x (say) 8 years of secondary education = £100,000 (more or less)). Of course, many of these mugs pretend to themselves - and to everybody else - that they have a moral objection to private education: indeed, as far as Fortismere is concerned, there is a strong and (by reports) highly vocal contingent of parents from the local SWP.
BTW I wouldn't believe estate agents about anything, least of all the "real" price of houses: is the guy who is quoted selling or buying?
U, for sure the extra cost of £200,000 extra mortgage at 6% (assume interest only) is also £12,000 a year (for as many kids as you want - are you assuming £6,000 per child x 2 or £12,000 for only child?) but all things being equal they will get a fair bit of that back when they sell up again and bank profits.
There was an article in London Lite (not on-line) that compared two more or less identical houses, one inside and one outside the catchment and the difference was £166,000.
MW
My maths is not as sophisticated as yours: at a rough guess if they wanted a decent education for their (2) children (@ £12,000 per year each for 8 years) they could send them to a local(ish) private school and stay in their existing house. If they decided instead to support an extra £200,000 to buy a house near Fortismere, they will certainly get the money back on the house but their children's education is crap. What's the better investment? A good education for your children or a house worth £200,000 more than your non-socialist neighbours'?
20+ years ago I had the choice of continuing to have my children educated by Haringey Council (and eventually to Fortismere) or going private. I was lucky (and so were my children) that I had a high enough income to send them through the private system. No parent - unless they are prepared to sacrifice their children to their political "principles" (plus the compensation of annual winter and summer holidays abroad) - would willingly send their children through the rubbish that was (and still is) the Haringey "education" system. I suspect it's little worse than any other local authority but that's not a particularly high hurdle. Bring on vouchers and the sooner the better.
"Bring on vouchers and the sooner the better"
Seconded!
I was actually making a Land Value Tax point here, but of course in this instance the vouchers are 99% of the solution. Like you, we have ended up paying twice for our kids' education. Bugger.
How would Land Value Tax apply to the areas required for all the gibbets we'll need for new Labour?
If public hangings of Labour politicians attract crowds of people, then all the local hot dog vendors etc will pay more Land Value Tax/pitch rent because of the extra trade they get.
The public hangings will be presumably held on public land/open space, that would be exempt from LVT, just like playgrounds, parks, museums etc.
Next question.
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