Is it time for a land tax to be imposed?

Surely it's time for a land tax to be imposed. The EU with it's grant system ensures that the very rich remain just that. Land owners (many not domicile in the UK) are to carry on being subsidised by the Europe with the farming subsidy that only benefits the very few.
 
 
 
Farming Subsidies: This Is The Most Blatant Transfer Of Cash To The Rich
By George Monbiot
 
Source: The Guardian
Tuesday, July 02, 2013
 
 
It's the silence that puzzles me. Last week the chancellor stood up in parliament to announce that benefits for the very poor would be cut yet again. On the same day, in Luxembourg, the British government battled to maintain benefits for the very rich. It won. As a result, some of the richest people in the country will each continue to receive millions of pounds in income support from taxpayers.
 
There has been not a whimper of protest. The Guardian hasn't mentioned it. UK Uncut is silent. So, at the other end of the spectrum, is the UK Independence party.
 
 
http://www.zcommunications.org/farming-subsidies-this-is-the-most-blatant-transfer-of-cash-to-the-rich-by-george-monbiot

tlttf. Good article from George Monbiot, thank you. So Iain Duncan Smith cuts the income of the poor, but lives on an estate which has received €1.5m from taxpayers in the last 10 years!
 
I suspect that a land tax has never been introduced because too many powerful vested interests stand in its way. And as, technically at least, all land in the UK belongs to the monarchy, does it follow that the Windsors would be expected to pay such a tax on behalf of everyone??  
 
Winston Churchill made the case for a land tax long ago:-
 
“Roads are made, streets are made, services are improved, electric light turns night into day, water is brought from reservoirs a hundred miles off in the mountains – and all the while the landlord sits still. Every one of those improvements is effected by the labour and cost of other people and the taxpayers. To not one of those improvements does the land monopolist, as a land monopolist, contribute, and yet by every one of them the value of his land is enhanced. He renders no service to the community, he contributes nothing to the general welfare, he contributes nothing to the process from which his own enrichment is derived ... the unearned increment on the land is reaped by the land monopolist in exact proportion, not to the service, but to the disservice done.”
 
http://www.newstatesman.com/economics/2013/01/whats-justification-land-value-tax
 
This article is on the same topic:-
 
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/mehdi-hasan/2012/02/land-tax-income-brittan-case

Several other Countries in the EU already operate a "wealth tax".
They differ from British practise in demanding an annual levy of two or three per mil (£2 or £3 per thousand£ value) of property which includes land, houses, cars, boats and Investments).

There is no obvious impediment to importing such measures, and perhaps that would be a good way for a Labour Government to fund recovery.

It would work for me OW, a true wealth leveller that still allows those with ability to earn without being penalised on their earnings.

Today's news is that house prices are expected to rise by 5% a year for the next five years. Not exactly good news for those on an income fixed at +1% a year. As predicted, the principle of Gideon making more money available to Lenders was simply to increase asking prices. Well, what a surprise!

Whether intentionally or not, the effect will be to revert to rented accommodation for the majority. Not quite what Thatcher expected from "right-to-buy". Or have I misunderstood?

No sign of a land value tax on the UK horizon, but the Lib Dem plan for a mansion tax, which has been adopted by Labour, is very popular.

Why the mansion tax is so deadly for the Tories

From an article by George Eaton:-

No responsible politician ever takes a policy decision without considering the political consequences. But Ed Miliband's decision to establish a £2.5bn fund to save the NHS through new taxes on mansions, tobacco firms and hedge funds was more political than most. It was designed to position Labour on the side of the saints, in the form of Britain's most cherished public institution, and the Tories on the side of the sinners.

The mansion tax (which a new Survation poll shows is backed by 72% of the public) serves both political and fiscal purposes. The Tories' opposition to the policy (Cameron vetoed it on the grounds that "our donors would never put up with it") offers Labour another chance to frame them as the party of the rich. When Miliband first adopted the idea in 2013, the Tories responded by writing to their wealthy donors soliciting funds to campaign against a “homes tax”, a fact that Labour gleefully cited as proof that the Prime Minister “stands up for the wrong people”.

As Lord Ashcroft and other pollsters have long testified, the Tories' biggest electoral handicap remains the belief that they are the party of the rich. But the Tories have little time to change this perception now. Having failed to address the problem during the early years of modernisation, which focused excessively on social liberalism, the Tories went on to compound it with the abolition of the 50p tax rate, the bedroom tax, and, of course, their opposition to a mansion tax.

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/09/why-mansion-tax-so-deadly-tories

I believe that labour should they win the next election, should go straight in with a land and mansion tax.
Ok it will make them unpopular with the rich and the royals, but the majority will see it as a great move if the monies went to the NHS.

Labour should make it their first item on their budget.

69% of the 60 million acres in the UK is owned by 0.6% of the population. With the exception of Spain, Britain has the most unequal concentration of land ownership anywhere in Europe.

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/06/leader-case-taxing-land

This thread has run for four years, without any noticeable reaction from a Tory administration theoretically still wedded to the Thatcher ambition of a Property-owning democracy

As reiterated in a Guardian article:

"Britain’s housing market is dysfunctional. The rate of home ownership is plummeting, and the average age at which people become owner-occupiers is rising."

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/homeandproperty/the-uk-housing-markets-perfect-storm-and-five-steps-to-avoid-it/ar-AAt4DfB?li=BBx1bGE&ocid=mailsignout

A tax on land with planning permission for houses to be built, but still undeveloped, would focus the minds of investors and construction companies.

You don't have to be Einstein to realise how much "housing" is a tool of Tory governments and their donors.  Shortage creates demand, and demand ensures ever-rising prices.  Mortgage lenders are pleased to have their risk reduced, Developers pay handsome dividends to their shareholders, and home-owners like to have "something to leave the kids".  (Largely to the inconvenience of other peoples' kids.)

There are people trying to redress that inequality, amongst whom you will find a group called CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) that in fact tackles poor housing-provision generally, and the quality of life outside our Cities.

 http://www.cpre.org.uk/

Worth a look.