The state and local government

7 Ibid., p. 16.

8 P. Beresford, ‘Rich List 2010’, The Sunday Times, 25 April 2010, p. 15.

9 H. Hyndman, 1911, p. 226. Hyndman was introduced to George by John Stuart Mill's step-daughter, Helen Taylor.

10 In a letter to Thomas Walker, 25 September 1890, quoted in C.A. Barker, 1955, p. 564.

11 Hyndman, 1911, p. 268.

12 K. Marx, 1881, p. 98. 

13 K. Marx and F. Engels, 1848, p. 506.

14 Marx, 1881.

15 K. Marx, 1848.

16 M. Edel, 1977, p. 5.

17 K. Marx, 1863, final para.

18 N. Tideman et al, 2002, p. 416.

19 Ibid., pp. 437-438.

20 British Retail Consortium, Membership List, http://www.brc.org.uk/.

21 M. Lyons, 2007, Chapter 6 ‘Funding Reform – an introduction’, p. 218, para 6.43.

22 Confederation of British Industry, (2005) para 5.

23 F. Engels, 1887. Later in 1887 Laurence Gronlund – then a Marxist who later became a Christian socialist and renounced class politics – wrote two anti-George pamphlets: see L. Gronlund, 1887a and 1887b. George Geiger maintains that Gronlund’s pamphlets – and Algie Simon’s 1899 pamphlet (A. M. Simon, 1899) – most effectively presented the socialist position against George: see G.R. Geiger, 1933, p. 255. Gronlund’s pamphlets, as Fred Harrison points out, were written ‘during the struggle between George and the socialists for control of the United Labour Party in 1887 – a struggle that culminated in the expulsion of the socialists’ (2003, p.2).

24 Engels, 1887.

25 M. Hudson, 2008, p. 4.

26 Ibid.

27 Ibid., p. 5.

28 Ibid., p. 7.

29 Ibid., p. 9.

30 Ibid., pp. 26-27.

31 M.D. Wyatt, 1994, p. 2.

32 See D. Harvey, 1982, Chapter 11 for Harvey’s general theory of rent and Chapter 5 for his summary of Marx’s views on monopoly.

33 D. Harvey, 2002, p. 94.

34 Ibid.

35 K. Marx, 1894a, p. 761.

36 Harvey, 2002, p. 94.

37 Ibid.

38 Ibid.

39 Ibid. p. 101.

40 Ibid., pp. 101-102.

41 Ibid., p. 102.

42 Ibid.

43 D. Harvey, 2008, pp. 23-40, p. 37.

44 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2009a, pp. 222-223.

45 Harvey, 2008, pp. 23-40, p. 37.

46 Ibid.

47 Ibid., pp. 38-39.

48 Ibid., p. 39.

49 Harvey, 2008, p. 39.

50 Ibid.

51 Ibid., p. 40.

52 C. Wilcox, 3 February 2009, http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2009/02/02/progressive-taxation-sqaures-the-circle/. Carol Wilcox is Secretary and Treasurer of the Labour Land Campaign.

53 M.D. Wyatt, 1994, pp. 2-3.

54 Carson, 2007, p. 13.

55 R. V. Andelson, 2000.

56 D. Maxwell and A. Vigor, 2005, p. 8.

57 E-mail to author dated 13 September 2009. Dave Wetzel – when he was a councillor from 1966 to 1968 – advised ministers that DLT would not work for these reasons. See also Vic. Blundell’s paper, which analyses Labour's flawed Land Acts from 1947 to 1976 (V. Blundell, 1993).

58 Co-operative Party, 2009, pp. 15-16.

59 E-mail to author dated 13 September 2009.

60 D. Maxwell and A. Vigor, 2005, p. 9.

61 G. R. A. Dunkley, 2000, p. 1.

62 J. J. Smith, 2004, p. 3.

63 D.L. Sjoquist, 2007, p. 127.

64 Ibid., p. 133.

65 Ibid. p. 138, p. 146.

66 M. Bailey, 2004, p. 4.

67 Henry George Institute, 2009.

68 S-Y Phang, 2000, p. 2.

69 Ibid., p. 3.

70 Ibid., pp. 4-5.

71 Ibid., pp. 5-8.

72 E.D. Craig, 2003, pp. 4-5.

73 J. I. Chapman et al, 2009, p. 202.

74 Land&Liberty, No. 1224 Vol. 116, Summer 2009, p. 6.

75 Labour Land Campaign, 2009a.

76 Labour Land Campaign, 2009b.

77 D. Wetzel, 2009, p. 3.

78 K. Marx, 1875, p. 81, his emphases.

79 J. Jones, 2009a, p. 32.

80 I. Barron, 1983.

81 See D. Wetzel, ‘The case for taxing land’, New Statesman 20 September, 2004 and C. Huhne, ‘Land campaign - Why we should follow Pittsburgh’, New Statesman 27 September, 2004.

82 H. Shah and M. McIvor (eds.), 2006, p. 19. The members of the New Political Economy Working Group are: Kate Bellamy, Robin Blackburn, David Clark, Sarah-Jayne Clifton, Colin Crouch, Jon Cruddas, Will Davies, Pat Devine, David Donald, Larry Elliott, Alan Finlayson, Ian Gough, John Grieve Smith, Sue Himmelweit, lan Hutton, George Irvin, Joe Irvin, Nick Isles, Hilary Land, Neal Lawson, Roger Levett, Hywel Lloyd, Toby Lloyd, Martin McIvor (chair), Ross McKibbin, Mary Mellor, Frances O’Grady, Guy Palmer, David Purdy, Howard Reed, Jonathan Rutherford, Hetan Shah, Robert Taylor, John Taylor, Paul Thompson, Andrea Westall and Stuart White. Hetan Shah was previously director of the New Economics programme at the New Eonomics Foundation; and Martin McIvor was Director of the left think-tank Catalyst from 2002 to 2005.

83 Ibid., p.80.

84 Ibid.

85 Ibid.

86 Ibid., p. 97.

87 Ibid., pp. 98-99.

88 T. Lloyd, 2009, p. 36. This report was produced and published with the support of Unison’s General Political Fund, the TUC and Shelter.

89 Ibid.

90 Ibid., p. 37.

91 Ibid., p. 38.

92 Ibid., p. 39.

93 J. Jones, 2008.

94 J. McDonnell, 2007, p. 29.

95 Green Party 2005, p. 6.

96 Green Party, 2009 p. 8.

97 Green Party, 2010, p. 15.

98 Further proposals, which were presented by ALTER to - but not discussed by - the Tax Commission and now supported by Liberal Youth were as follows:

1. When replacing Council Tax with LIT, retain a national domestic property tax. Re-introduce ‘Schedule A’ income tax (imputed rent ‘earnings’ on owner-occupied property), exempting all rent-payers. An additional ‘homestead’ allowance would be given to partially offset the burden on those owning modest homes by local standards - as used to calculate housing rent now. Pensioners would be allowed to defer net payments until death/sale/re-mortgage.

2. Remove the risk of a house price hike following the removal of Council Tax by ensuring yields from revived Schedule A balance that from Council Tax now (£21bn). The basic rate threshold to be raised correspondingly, taking millions of low earners out of income tax.

3. While registers of land ownership and value are being completed, require occupiers (a) to pay property taxes (recoverable by deduction from rent) and (b) to self-assess site values, with local authorities given power to acquire sites at the owner’s valuation if thought too low.

4. When the first national land valuation is completed, continue a ‘rolling revaluation’ to ensure the tax base remains a fair reflection of the land market and captures the impacts of all infrastructure investments. Convert ‘1’ above to conform with non-domestic SVR.

5. Phase out Stamp Duty, Section 106 (Developers Contributions), Inheritance Tax and Capital Gains Tax (on ‘real property’) over time, replacing them with a higher LVT, captured through income tax and corporation tax systems (Action for Land Taxation and Economic Reform, Manifesto for CEJ, their emphasis, http://libdemsalter.org.uk/).

99 Liberal Democrats, 2010.

100 The Coalition for Economic Justice, press release dated 27 December 2008.

101 The Coalition for Economic Justice, press release dated 16 March 2009.

102 Ibid.

103 Ibid., 2 April 2009. See also F. Harrison, 2005.

104 Commission on Scottish Devolution, 2009. Calman’s key recommendations - that the Scottish government should be given significant new borrowing powers and greater control over taxation on incomes - would mean that the Scottish Parliament would be able to dispense with the private finance initiative favoured by both SNP and Labour-led administrations and develop a more progressive taxation system to meet social need (M. Burns, ‘The Scottish battle lines are drawn’, Morning Star, 18 June 2009). Moreover, although there is no specific reference by Calman to land value taxation, as David Maddox emphasises: ‘The Calman recommendations in theory make it easier to abolish the council tax….Under the LIT proposals, or any other plan to abolish the council tax, Scotland would lose out by £400 million in lost council tax benefits. However, the commission has recommended that the Treasury would try to work out replacing lost revenue for Scotland if this were to happen’(D. Maddox, ‘Calman's bold proposals to empower Scotland’, The Scotsman, 16 June 2009).

105 D. Maddox, ‘Scotland's biggest city backs plan to replace council tax’ The Scotsman, 26 June 2009.

106 Glasgow City Council, 2009, paragraph 1.4, p. 3.

107 Ibid., paragraph 4.24, p. 13.

108 Ibid., paragraph 4.22, p. 13.

109 Ibid.

110 Ibid., paragraph 4.25, p. 13.

111 Ibid., p. 46.

112 See note 116 above.

113 Co-operative Party, 2009, p. 16.

114 Heather Wetzel originally proposed the motion at her branch (email from H. Wetzel to P Latham dated 17 January 2010).

115 C. Baugh et al, 2009, p. 3.

116 Ibid., pp. 10-11. Roger Seifert is professor of industrial relations at Wolverhampton Business School and Mike Ironside was a senior lecturer in industrial relations at Keele University until retirement in 2009.

117 Ibid., p. 11.

118 The Communications Workers Union Annual Conference in May 2010 was to have debated a motion from its Croydon and South London Branch – which instructed “the NEC to promote...Land Value Tax as a vehicle to tackle the housing crisis and provide much better revenue for general public development” and asked it “to consider submitting this motion to the next TUC and Labour Party Conferences” (CWU, 2010, p. 22) – but it was not reached.

119 S. Spratt et al, 2007, p.78, their emphases. NEF was founded in 1986 by the leaders of The Other Economic Summit, which forced issues such as international debt onto the agenda of the G7 and G8 summits.

120 Ibid., p. 118, footnote 87.

121 Ibid., p. 79.

122 M. Lyons, 2007, Chapter 8 ‘Business taxation’ p. 289, para 8.15.

123 Jones, 2008, pp. 35-36.

124 Oxfordshire County Council and Vale of White Horse, 2005, pp. 2-3.

125 Jones, 2008, p. 27.

126 Ibid., pp. 31-32.

127 Ibid., p. 11.

128 Ibid., p. 33.

129 Ibid., p. 28.

130 Ibid., p. 36.

131 D. Grove, 2009, p. 40.

132 Jones, 2008, p. 7.

133 Ibid.

134 Ibid. In the longer term, as the Communist Party of Britain’s programme Britain’s Road to Socialism in the section on the Alternative Economic and Political Strategy states: ‘To enable industrial and social development to take place in a planned and balanced way, the big landed estates in town and countryside will have to be taken into public ownership. The free market in land will have to be brought under local and democratic control, within an overall national plan’ (Communist Party of Britain, 2000, Chapter 3, ‘Economic and Social policies’, paragraphs 35-36). And, as Grove correctly points out: ‘The timing and extent of land nationalisation by a left government, and the compensation (if any) to landowners, would of course depend on the way the balance of class forces develops in the course of progressive struggle’ (D. Grove, 2009, p. 40).

135 P. Legrain, 'Tax land: it can’t be hidden from the Revenue', The Times, 16 June 2010.

136 New Labour’s 2010 Manifesto pledged to introduce ‘petitioning powers for local residents to demand action’ (p. 64); and the Conservatives’ 2010 Manifesto pledged to ‘give residents the power to instigate local referendums on any local issue if 5 per cent of the local population sign up’(p.75). The Queen’s speech on 25 May 2010 included proposals for a Decentralisation and Localism Bill which will give ‘residents the power to instigate local referendums on any local issue and the power to veto excessive council tax increases’. And the same Bill will: ‘Create Local Enterprise Partnerships (to replace Regional Development Agencies) – joint local authority-business bodies brought forward by local authorities to promote local economic development’. Moreover, Sir Jeremy Beecham – Labour vice chair of the Local Government Association – claims the Conservative-Liberal Democrat government has undermined its purported commitment to localism in three policy areas since coming to power: ‘First they made their intention to marginalise councils in relation to education. Then they inflicted the ridiculous requirement on councils, many of whose budgets run into hundreds of millions of pounds, to publish details of all items of expenditure over £500. Now the coalition government has forbidden councils to charge for rubbish thrown away rather than recycled, even though recycling rates are far too low. You don’t have to agree with charging to realise that this ought to be a matter for local decision, not central government prescription.’ He added that while the coalition had promised councils a general power of competence, ‘that won’t mean much if councils are only free to do what the government wants’ (M. Conrad, ‘Beecham questions coalition commitment to localism’, LocalGov.co.uk Newsletter, 8 June 2010).

137² T. Lloyd, 2009, p. 39.

138 The final version of the coalition government's programme states that: 'We will allow councils to return to the committee system, should they wish to' (Cabinet Office, 2010, p, 12).

139 Labour Party, 2010, p. 64.

140 ‘We will create directly elected mayors in the 12 largest English cities, subject to confirmatory referendums and full scrutiny by elected councillors’ (Cabinet Office, 2010, p. 12).

141 http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/topstorynews/2010/05/queens-speech-2010-3-50297.

142 Local Government Association Labour Group, 2009, p. 5.

143 Ibid., p. 11.

144 PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2010, p. 3, p. 6.

145 The Management Consultancies Association, 2010, p. 6. The MCA is the representative body for management consultancy firms in Britain. Member companies comprise around 70 per cent of the British consulting industry, estimated to be worth £8 billion in 2009, employ more than 40,000 consultants and work with over 90 of the top FTSE 100 companies and almost all parts of the public sector.

146 N. Sharman, ‘The opportunity of a lifetime’, Localgov.uk Newsletter, 26 January 2010.

147 This research project, according to NLGN’s website, is titled ‘Realising Total Place: Moving from theory into practice’ (