Claverton Energy Research Group endorses LVT

The Claverton Group (a UK association of energy, environmental, transportation, and academic institutions) proposed a nationwide switch to LVT as a resolution to the current economic crisis. A resolution passed at the November 2008 meeting of the Coalition for Economic Justice reads:

“The current economic crisis highlights, again, the inadequacies of the economic system which is unstable and deeply flawed. It is clear that events are demonstrating the common feature of repeated economic booms and depressions in the speculative rise in land prices.

In order to address this problem we need to suggest to the wider world that it is possible to create a new approach that delivers both economic justice and prosperity for all. This solution must be based upon the annual collection of land value for public purposes.

This meeting agrees that there is an urgent need to convince policy makers of this, and for them to develop (with our assistance) policies to capture unearned land values. Such policies would enable taxes on labour and enterprise to be minimised. Investment in necessary public infrastructure would thus be recovered for public benefit.

We believe, however, that it is unproductive at this stage for our respective groups to attempt to agree how to achieve this. An agreement by the main parties on the need for a nation-wide tax on the value of land would trigger completion of the registration and valuation of land within a single parliament. We therefore commit to trying to persuade all parties to agree to this being a manifesto commitment.”

The last paragraph of the resolution is particularly interesting because it points out how LVT can be supported by a variety of groups that may otherwise have little in common. The same is potentially quite true here. Virtually all political parties have an interest in a switch to LVT. Liberals can appreciate that government funding need not be reduced. Conservatives can appreciate that tax collection costs and the size of government could be greatly reduced. Libertarians can appreciate the reduction in the size of government as well as the greater protection of individual property rights and the reduced government interference in the free market. Greens can appreciate the reduction of urban sprawl. Remember that when Henry George ran for Mayor of New York, he did so as a Labor Party candidate. Why was that? His single tax on the value of land would have eliminated all taxes on labor. See my website for endorsements of LVT from across the political spectrum.