On Saturday
29 July Malcolm Chase gave an incisive lecture on the life and ideas of Thomas
Spence and land nationalisation for the Socialist History Society.
He stressed
that on land issues Spence had more
influence on Chartism than Thomas Paine, and on Chartist supporters like Thomas E. Bowkett who initiated the Bowkett
building society movement, about which Stan
Newens wrote in History Workshop Journal (No 9. Spring 1980), an article well worth reading.
Discussion
included the question of whether Spence's ideas remain relevant today. There was a
consensus that the issue of land ownership was a major problem at the root of
the current housing crisis. I
suggested that his ideas on building a democratic Britain up from the parishes
remained an inspiration to thinking about the need for major reform in
governance.
You can read
what Malcolm has already published about Spence “The Real rights of Man”: Thomas Spence, Paine and Chartism in Miranda revue
which he gave at a 2014 Conférence
on Spence in Toulouse.
He also wrote the
book about Spence and his followers the Spencean Philantropists in The People’s Farm. English Radical Agrarianism 1775-1840, originally published in 1988 and republished in 2010 by Breviary Stuff
Publications.
Breviary is also publisher of the collection of essays Thomas Spence: The Poor Man’s
Revolutionary, edited by Alastair Bonnett & Keith Armstrong.
Keith Armstrong is a leading member of the Thomas Spence Society.
Duncan Bowie on housing and planning
One of the people
attending Malcom's lecture was Duncan Bowie, who teaches spatial planning and housing at the University of Westminster. He writes about housing and planning matters in The Chartist magazine. The first 50 of his
historical articles in it have been
republished in a collection by the Socialist History Society Our History. Roots of the
British Socialist Movement
His writings
include:
·
Glistening towers can
beguile but won't provide the homes London most needs
·
The issues
illustrated by the Grenfell fire disaster
·
Revisiting the land issue
in Urban
Regeneration and Renewal. Vol 9. 2016. No.2. pp. 1115-121
His book Radical
solutions to the housing supply crisis can be ordered at
He is involved in the Highbury Group on
Housing Delivery, the extensive literature of which can be accessed at
The Radical and Socialist
Tradition in British Planning
This is the
title of his book on the history of planning and land nationalisation published by Routledge
and of his linked website
Land Nationalisation Society
Among the campaign groups at the end of the 19th and into the early 20thC were the Land Nationalisation Society whose President Alfred Russell Wallace, the co-founder of the theory of evolution, was President and writer in defence of the campaign - see his Land Nationalisation. Its Necessity and Its Aims Being a Comparison of the System of Landlord and Tenant with That of Occupying Ownership in Their Influence on the Well-being of the People
Land Value Tax
Another organisation was the English League for the Taxation of Land Values
Duncan has penned the following chronology on land values in legisation
1885 Royal Commission on Housing of the Working Classes supported taxation of development land.1909 Housing and Planning Act. Tax on undeveloped land ; tax on development value – 50% on increase arising from town planning
1910 Budget (Lloyd George) 20% tax on capital
gains on disposal of land
1920 Land taxes repealed. Repayment to landowners.1944 Uthwatt report on betterment
1947 Town and Country Planning Act
Nationalisation of development rights.
Nationalisation of development rights.
100% development charge on development land
payable to Central Land Board
Compensation payable to landlords who were refused right to develop land
Compensation payable to landlords who were refused right to develop land
1952 Repealed by Conservative government
1967 Land Commission Act
Establishment of land commission with power to acquire, manage and sell land
40% levy on
land disposals
Betterment levy -40% on land sold, leased or realised by development. Collected by commission and paid to central government.
Betterment levy -40% on land sold, leased or realised by development. Collected by commission and paid to central government.
1970 Repealed by Conservative Government
1975 Community Land Act. LA had power to acquire development land at current use
value.
1976 Development Land Tax Act. 80% tax on
development gains (66.6% tax on first £150,000).
(50% to LA; 30% to central govt; 20% to LA pool)
(50% to LA; 30% to central govt; 20% to LA pool)
1980 Repealed by Local Government, Planning and
Land Act
1990 Town and Country Planning Act
s106 Provisions for LPAs to seek contributions to community benefit related to a planning consent – planning gain/planning obligations Not a tax
2011 Localism Act. Power for Local Planning Authorities and Mayor to introduce Community Infrastructure Levy – a tax on new development
1990 Town and Country Planning Act
s106 Provisions for LPAs to seek contributions to community benefit related to a planning consent – planning gain/planning obligations Not a tax
2011 Localism Act. Power for Local Planning Authorities and Mayor to introduce Community Infrastructure Levy – a tax on new development
The Labour manifesto in the recent General
Election says it will ‘consider new options such as a land value tax’ (p. 86)
The Housing Crisis
History Workshop Podcast Episode 3 –
History Acts: Housing in Crisis
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