George Monbiot quotes Professor Danny Dorling's in a Guardian article earlier this week. As Monbiot says, "the problem that lies behind our multiple housing crises is simple and obvious. It is, at root, a failure to tax". He advocates property taxes, and in particular an under occupancy tax.
Reports of empy mansions in Bishop's Avenue, London's Billionaire's row, have highlighted the shocking waste of housing in the capital. Foreign speculators abuse the UK's property ownership laws to provide a safe haven for their wealth. From Russian gangsters, African dictators and tax dodging Greeks, hot money floods onto the UK property market, as overseas speculators seek a safe haven for their fortunes. Our rule of law and impartial system of justice protects their land against trespass, damage and arbitrary confiscation. However the relationship is entirely parasitical. Speculators benefit from the protection of British law, but do not contribute towards the costs of maintaining the state.
Squaring the circle is hard, but according to Stuart Roger UKIP wants to achieve something even harder. They are determined to ditch Europe but equally determined to hang on to its biggest gravy train: the Common Agricultural Policy. Money from CAP goes to some of their most enthusiastic supporters: rural landowners and farmers.
Business rates in the UK are not fit for purpose, and MPs are calling for its reform, reports the Telegraph. Predictably, their remedy is to load all taxes onto profits and productivity; the Telegraph treasures a vision of a Britain that is a paradise for land speculators and hoarders who should have to pay nothing to maintain their huge land banks of unused land.
The floods have hit Datchet and neighbouring Eton. In the words of Deborah Orr (Guardian 15'th Feb) the effluent has hit the affluent. The prime minister, who used to talk about hard choices, has announced that money is no object. When the wealthy scream for suckle at the teat of central funding, money gushes with no questions asked.
On 7 - 9th March will be the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference and ALTER, as always will be present.