As if selling off our local Fire Station for private profit weren’t bad enough, current and would-be residents of Clerkenwell will be further enraged by the Islington Tribune‘s revelation that the upper four floors, which could have provided desperately-needed extra housing, have sat empty for decades.
While ordinary Londoners struggle to find a place to live – and in many cases see the majority of their income disappear through housing costs – those few lucky enough to own property in our city are all too often happy to let it sit unoccupied, steadily increasing in value until such time as they wish to cash it in. This cannot be allowed to continue.
Thankfully, we know of a solution. A land value tax, replacing the council tax, would provide a proper incentive for those who own property to see it put to productive use at all times. The phenomenon of ‘Buy-to-Leave’ would no longer make economic sense, as London boroughs would levy tax on the owner regardless of where they are living. If overseas investors want to invest in London housing, they’ll have to make sure to rent it out.
It’s also a fair tax. The value of our homes changes according to things we can’t control, like infrastructure improvements. Those of us living near the Crossrail station at Farringdon will – once the inconvenience of the building work is over – be sitting on significantly more valuable land than we were before. The owners of that land should be taxed on that unearned windfall.
This simple but highly effective measure has been championed by everyone from the founder of modern economics, Adam Smith, through to eco campaigner George Monbiot, with Winston Churchill and Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf in between.
The Green Party, however, is the only one of the political parties bold enough to espouse this policy to radically transform the UK’s failing housing market. Make sure you vote next Thursday!