Saturday, September 30, 2006


Build, Build, Build

Report by the Green Party
...All 33 boroughs will be given targets for more affordable houses and Mayor Ken Livingstone will have the power to intervene if they turn down schemes in designated areas... "affordable housing" has fallen by 38,000 since Mr Livingstone became Mayor, say the Green Party.

Mr Livingstone seems to be unaware of the fact that affordability declines because of property price inflation endemic to the housing market.
He can always order more houses to be built to meet rising demand and keep prices stable. He cannot, however, order more land to be conjured up on which to build the new houses.

The solution (Site Value Capture, also known as Land Value Taxation) has been available at least since the Liberal Party championed it in 1909. But a powerful minority who perceiving itself as loosing out managed to prevent its implementation fo a century.
How long will this privileged minority be allowed to sabotage a reform that would benefit the vast majority struggling and often failing to afford this third basic need?

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