Land Tax Books
Progress and Poverty by Henry George
The original text that sets out the case for Land Value Tax. Available in various editions from many booksellers.
But there's a free download of an abridged version for modern readers by Bob Drake here.
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How Our Economy Really Works by Brian Hodgkinson
Economists have long asserted that three factors of production lie at the root of their subject: land, labour and capital. Yet in the development of the subject only labour and capital have been thoroughly analysed: land has been ignored. It is hardly mentioned in modern textbooks, popular discussion and political debate. Much of the argument about industrial policy or wealth and income distribution reverts to a polarised struggle between two antagonists, labour and capital. The third factor, land, hides in the background unacknowledged yet exerting a major influence on the whole economic process.
What needs to change are deeply embedded features, which have generally been established for a very long time. They are principally the taxation system, the land tenure system, and the banking system. All three require root and branch reform.
Available here and from other booksellers.
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Rethinking The Economics of Land and Housing by Josh Ryan-Collins, Toby Lloyd and Laurie Macfarlane
A comprehensive, critical but accessible guide to the role of land in housing policy and how it has been excluded from mainstream economic theory. Available here and elsewhere.
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The Case for a New People's Budget by Tony Vickers £5 + £2 Post and packaging (printed softback) or free download
Foreword by Vince Cable that sums up why it is a "must read" for Party activists who are serious about Lib Dem prospects for power after next year's General Election.
In Vince Cable's own words: The booklet demonstrates that LVT is not just another property tax, important though it is that property should not go untaxed. LVT is already part of our taxation policy. As a first step we want to see commercial rates replaced by site value taxation. But this is only a first step towards a wider system for taxing land values. The writers argue that LVT has far-reaching effects on breaking down monopoly land-holdings, on encouraging new enterprises and raising the levels of earnings, on recovering the cost of major and minor public works, on supporting small-scale farming and the cultivation of marginal land, on stabilising house prices and, perhaps most importantly, reducing the disparity between the rich and the poor.
These are large claims but they spring from a fundamental view that the wealth produced over the centuries by the efforts of the community is reflected in land values and is therefore a proper target for taxation. ALTER has done us a service by assembling these arguments at this time.
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"Brilliantly researched, extremely well written and shocking in its detail, this book reminds us that when Proudhon coined his famous dictum, "property is theft", he didn't know the half of it?" - John Burnside
How did they get it? What happened to all the common land in Scotland? Has the Scottish Parliament made any difference? Can we get our common good land back? In The Poor Had No Lawyers, Andy Wightman, author of Who Owns Scotland, updates the statistics of landownership in Scotland and takes the reader on a voyage of discovery into Scotland's history to find out how and why landowners got their hands on the millions of acres of land that were once held in common. He tells the untold story of how Scotland's legal establishment and politicians managed to appropriate land through legal fixes. From Robert the Bruce to Willie Ross and from James V to Donald Dewar, land has conferred political and economic power. Have attempts to redistribute this power more equitably made any difference and what are the full implications of the recent debt fuelled housing bubble? For all those with an interest in urban and rural land in Scotland, The Poor Had No Lawyers provides a fascinating and illuminating analysis of one the most important political questions in Scotland - who owns Scotland and how did they get it?
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Location Matters by Tony Vickers £8.95 on Amazon.
(Paperback- 20 Aug 2007)
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New Model Economy by Brian Hodgkinson on Amazon.
(Paperback - Feb 2008)