Tony Blair initiative to solve housing crisis
Further Reading:
Ricardo’s Law
by Fred Harrison
Rent Unmasked
by Fred Harrison
No Debt, High Growth, Low Tax
by Andrew Purves
The Observer (3rd Dec) revealed a new initiative to tackle the housing crisis from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. Blair is proposing that council tax and business rates, which are currently based on the value of the site and any building or improvement on it, be replaced by a tax which relates solely to the value of the land under the buildings, arguing that it is a “fairer and more rational system of property taxation”.
At the same time, the Office for National Statistics has released figures revealing that land is Britain’s most valuable asset, having increased fivefold since 1995, provoking calls for the introduction of a land tax to curb soaring house prices driven by the rising land prices.
The land-value tax is usually seen as leftwing, reinforced when the Marxist John McDonnell pledged in Labour’s 2017 election manifesto to hold a review of the idea, but rightly understood it could provide a market solution to the housing crisis.
During his premiership, following a visit to Singapore, Blair returned to Britain espousing the idea of a “third way” to create an economy that worked for everyone, something Anthony Giddens, then Director of the London School of Economics had written about in his book The Third Way. This proved a disappointing mixture of left and right.
The argument for funding government from economic rent, which is what a land-value tax would collect, rests on an understanding of Ricardo’s Law, named after the classical economist who first explained its operation clearly. Unfortunately, mainstream economists largely ignore it, thus depriving policy-makers of a valuable tool in their endeavours to make the economy work for everyone.
It is to be hoped that Blair has realised the significance of the Law of Rent and how this could be a foundation for a genuine third way, one which holds out the possibility that, with government focused on collecting more of the economic rent, the burden of taxation could be reduced and possibly even eliminated so that government was funded entirely out of rent. This is what a “fairer and more rational system of property taxation” offers.
Several of the books in our Ethical Economics list explore the many ramifications of such an approach.
To Tax or to Borrow?
This is the dilemma facing the British government – and many others – as they struggle to meet the rising costs of the welfare state while trying to eliminate the budget deficit. The options are either to increase taxation, never a popular move, or to increase borrowing. The cost of the former will fall on present taxpayers, the latter on future generations and the young of today who are being wooed by Jeremy Corbyn.
read morePolitics for the people, not just the privileged
Further Reading: From Here to Prosperity by Tom Burgess By Tom Burgess The British people want change, we voted for change. And we will continue to vote for change until we get it. Theresa May paid no heed to how the perceived arrogance and sense of entitlement of...
read moreRent Unmasked: Winner of The People’s Book Prize Best Achievement Award
We are delighted to congratulate Fred Harrison on the receipt of his Best Achievement Award. After June’s election result it is clear that many of the UK’s population are no longer supportive of the Conservatives’ austerity measures and are looking for a way to introduce equality and reduce poverty. This book outlines a way this might be achieved.
read moreThe People’s Budget
Further Reading: The People's Budget by Geoffrey Lee Rent Unmasked by Fred Harrison Public Revenue Without Taxation by Ronald Burgess In his first budget the Chancellor of the Exchequer had the opportunity to set a course for Britain’s prosperity post Brexit and to...
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LATEST BOOK
Rent Unmasked
Rent Unmasked explores the new economic paradigm that policy-makers need to solve global problems in the post-2008 era. With conventional economic theories discredited, the new model must equip governments with tools to re-stabilise societies in a dangerous world. Rent Unmasked explains why one paradigm only qualifies to serve this purpose: the dynamic model that reinstates time and space in economic theorising.
ISBN 9780856835117 | Price: £19.95