The current tax system is a joke. If you build an extension or improve a property, your taxes go up. If you let a building rot while the neighborhood around it improves, your taxes stay low while your “asset” skyrockets in value.
Land Value Tax (LVT) flips the script. It doesn’t tax the building; it taxes the location.
1. It Kills “Land Banking”
Rich investors and developers currently buy massive tracts of land and just sit on them. They wait for the government to build a new school or a train line nearby, which pushes the land value up by millions. They do zero work and pocket the “unearned increment.”
- Under LVT: If you own a prime piece of land in London, Paris, or New York, you pay a heavy tax based on its potential use, whether there’s a luxury skyscraper or a derelict shack on it.
- The Result: Investors can no longer afford to let land sit idle. They are forced to either develop it into high-quality housing or sell it to someone who will.
2. It Can’t Be Dodged
You can move a bank account to the Cayman Islands. You can move a yacht to Monaco. You cannot move land. LVT is the ultimate “un-evadable” tax. It targets the one asset the rich cannot hide in an offshore shell company.
3. The Statistics of the Stolen Earth
The concentration of land ownership is the root of the “Modern Feudalism” you’re describing:
- UK: Less than 1% of the population owns half the land in England and Wales.
- Europe: In the EU, real estate holdings for individuals with over €1 billion in wealth could yield €13 billion annually in tax even at low rates.
- USA: Institutional investors (like Blackstone) now own a massive percentage of single-family homes in some states. In 2024, they were responsible for nearly 20% of all home purchases in certain US metro areas, outbidding families with cash.
- The Revenue: A 0.5% tax on the top 1% of property values in the UK alone could raise over £9 billion a year—money that could fund actual high-quality public housing instead of the “slum-type” boxes developers are currently pushing.
4. Why it Ends the “Grenfell” Quality Crisis
Currently, developers cut corners (shoddy materials, no fire safety) to maximize profit because the building is where they make their margin. With LVT, the tax stays the same whether you build a death-trap or a masterpiece. This incentivizes quality because better buildings attract higher rents/prices without increasing the tax bill. The tax is on the land beneath the building, not the sweat and blood put into the construction.
The Bottom Line: Tax the Monopoly, Not the Man
Wealth today isn’t created by labor; it’s captured by monopolizing space. In 2025, over 70% of the value of a UK home is in the land itself, not the bricks. We are essentially paying the rich for the “privilege” of standing on the earth.
The Verdict: If we want to save the middle class and give young people a future, we must stop taxing the worker’s income and start taxing the investor’s land.
