1. LVT: some cautionary notes
LVT seminar, Portcullis House 18 October 2017
LVT:
some cautionary notes
Michael Edwards, Bartlett School, UCL
Bartlett School of Planning, University College London
@JustSpace7
NOTE that some of the images used here have no cleared copyright approvals: this has been prepared only for teaching purposes and must not be reproduced.

2. scope What do we want? Reinforcing geographic inequalities
Reinforcing markets
Land + “improvements” 
Ways forward: tax property or land?

3. What do we want? …inspired by Duncan Bowie
Foster productive investment, not speculation
Bring land forward for development at lowest possible cost
Reduce scope of markets, increase public land & commons
Ensure most effective use of land and property in relation to public policy objectives
Land [and property] value appreciation should be captured for public policy objectives
Reduce wealth inequalities 
Replace bad taxes CT, CGT, IHT, SDLT, uBR +?

4. Reinforcing geographic inequalities
Risk of reinforcing disparities between regions, cities, districts within them
A redistribution scheme is a pre-requisite for any local taxation regime
Until then the channelling of funds to localities via central government may be less evil…
…even though the agglomeration fetish channels too much to London.
[not a problem unique to LVT; applies equally to London Finance Commission & similar proposals for locally-raised taxes]

5. Dan Cookson map

6. Neal Hudson
(For m2 add a 0)

7. Reinforcing markets
Remember that Henry George’s plan was for a more effective capitalism
Market forces to be better harnessed to optimise the use of land
Is this what we want?
In particular: intensifying the use of land

8. Land + “improvements” 
Incentivise land owners to maximise their exploitation of sites, within the law
Pre-supposes a zoning system to specify how land can be used.
UK system does not use such zoning.
Poses a huge problem for valuation: what planning assumptions to make?
Are all intensifications “improvements”

9. Heygate Estate demolished for intensification

10. Now under construction on Heygate site
74 social rented homes out of 2,704 compared with 1,194 before
Lend Lease image

12. So what should we do?
To start with, at least, a property value tax with a re-distribution between areas
Easy to compute, could be automated
Captures the rent from intensely-developed land; use £/m2 x m2 to make under-occupancy transparent
Base on existing use value, except…
…un-implemented permissions (lagged)
…land allocated in plans (lagged)
…land under option (not sure?)
Replace CT, uBR, CGT,
CPOs at existing use value

13. Sources etc
My talk draws on work I did for the Government Office of Science project on the Future of Cities 2015, material for which is at societycould.wordpress.com
Other writings at michaeledwards.org.uk/publications-list
See also JustSpace.org.uk