Unlikely Land Value Taxers: John Prescott

From the BBC, quoting John Prescott circa 2004:

"We own the land; it's a valuable public asset. We don't need to sell it off. We can keep it in trust and we can lease it for essential housing. So the first-time buyer pays the cost of building a home but not the full market cost of the land, [and it's the cost of the land] which is helping to make it impossible for our people to buy those houses."

Funny use of the word "helping" but if you think about what he said, that looks like Land Value Tax to me. It's the ultimate shared ownership scheme - you pay for the bricks and mortar outright and pay rent for the location value, i.e. the value of those services which society in general provides for "free" to the occupier of any particular site.

It's a risk free operation to the purchaser, because if the location becomes less desirable, your tax/rent goes down and vice versa, and it puts the council or the government in the position of a conscientious land lord - if they want more money they have to make their borough or the whole of the UK are more desirable place to live (=> more coppers, fewer council chief executives on six-figure salaries) or do business (=> the government could use the rental income to start reducing VAT and Employer's NIC).

Via TenYears at HPC.