Politics 1.01

Went along to the latest Common Weal session in Leith to hear Andy Wightman talk about land reform. Only just made it as the place was packed and the guy on the door said I was the last person he'd let in. Still had to stand for the whole talk but well worth it to hear some of the basics about why land reform matters.
It's not just in the countryside as it's just as important in the towns and cities. The price of property is underpinned by the price of land, which in turn is affected by the way we tax things. There was a very interesting chart that showed the proportion of the price of a new property can be attributed to different elements - such as the land it is built on, the materials and the labour costs. Much of the massive hike in UK property prices is down to a huge increase in land values. Which contributes to the pattern of modern house building we see in the UK. The large building firms make most of their money from the rising value of the land, encouraging them to sit on undeveloped land as it rises in price, and then when they do build to build cheap houses as quickly as possible and then move on. A house that costs £100K to build may need a plot of land that costs another £100K to build it on, half the cost of the finished house. In contrast, where building plots are much cheaper elsewhere in Europe, the plot may only cost a tenth or less of the finished house and properties are much more often self-builds and of much higher quality.
And the failure to tax underused land frequently adds to the problem. If a bit of derelict land in a prime urban area is not charged rates there is no incentive to develop it and the owner can just sit on it and watch the price rise further and further. If instead the land was taxed then there would be an incentive to develop it to generate some revenue to pay the rates or sell it on to someone else to develop.
So many things to think about and investigate further. The idea to drop completely the transaction tax that is Stamp Duty and tax all land instead. And such land taxes, Council Rates, would be a tax on the land alone, meaning improving your home wouldn't mean an increase in the rates, but improved public services, such as better transport links to a location, usually done at public expense, would mean a rise in rates to reflect the rise in land value.
There was a question and answer session afterwards that raised some more interesting topics and, although it was difficult to move around the room as it was so busy, also a chance to chat with other people there. I spoke to a man who had written a novel with a similar land reform theme. A bit of speculative fiction set in the present day that he said he'd written while commuting to and from work and that he'd self-published online. I'll need to check it out. It also prompted me to think about returning to my two unpublished novels and see about maybe doing something with them too.