Call for a land value tax to help deliver ‘house-building revolution’

A think-tank has launched a paper calling for a land value tax to help deliver a ‘house-building revolution’. the Centre for Labour and Social Studies suggests this could replace business rates and stamp duty and should be levied on all land except where it lies under people’s homes.

The paper says the tax should end land speculation which has lead to a higher land prices and a lack of land for building.

The report also says that because there is currently no tax on empty land in the UK, it can be lucrative to acquire it, hold onto it and then sell it at a higher value.