Labour and the Land: The Making of the Community Land Act, 1976

Abstract

In the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, land reform was 'at the centre of English political life' , as Alan Howkins has noted. 1 Although the issue receded after the First World War, it revived in the 1930s because concerns about the steady loss of countryside to suburban expansion, particularly around London, and about problems of industrial decay in Wales, Scotland and the North of England increased interest in town and country planning. 2 Widespread destruction during the Second World War then put the issue of town planning and land use at the top of the political agenda. It was widely and optimistically accepted at the end of the war that good planning and modern architecture could not only restore bomb damage, but also create an entirely new Britain. 3 As J.B. Cullingworth has written, 'There was an enthusiasm and a determination to undertake social reconstruction on a scale hitherto considered

Section 106, Viability, and the Depoliticization of English Land Value Capture Policy

“…In the post‐war decades, academic economists were the primary intellectual driving force behind Labour Party policy (Mudge, 2018), and betterment value policy was one of their central concerns. Anthony Crosland, 4 Harold Wilson, 5 Arthur Skeffington, 6 Hugh Dalton 7 and Hugh Gaitskell 8 were all lecturers in economics at some point in their career, all played key roles in betterment value capture debates and policy, and all were advocates for interventionist betterment value capture policy (Weiler, 2008; 2013).…”

“…Since this 'economic rent' was unearned, there was a strong normative justification for the state to reduce house prices and compulsorily purchase land at close to its use value--policies which, as we have seen, Labour actively promoted. This view also pervaded society as a whole, with the Conservatives acknowledging in 1973 that people found 'offensive' the 'fact that with land an owner can quite fortuitously make huge windfall gains simply as a result of decisions made by planning authorities acting on behalf of the community as a whole' (Weiler, 2013). From the 1980s onwards, however, Labour Party manifestos dropped this normative interpretation, as well at the policies that flowed from it.…”

The Sixth Giant? Environmental Policy and the Labour Government, 1945–51

“…Wilson's government made an attempt to reintroduce a betterment levy on development land but it, too, would not survive the succeeding Conservative government (Cullingworth & Nadin, 2006: 28). In the 1970s the issue of land value and betterment returned to the political agenda, but the Labour government's two Acts were failures, channelling profits to developers rather than communities due to cumbersome procedures and substantial exceptions (Weiler, 2013). An attempt to socialise the betterment of land had failed again and has now lain dormant within mainstream British politics for decades.…”

“…The general neglect of the history contained here is unfortunate for two additional reasons (cf. Weiler, 2013: 390–1, 406–08). Firstly, because some are arguing that land needs to become more central to the political and policy agenda (Fitzpatrick, 2014: 143–84; Linklater, 2014), e.g., via Land Value Taxation.…”

Change in the political economy of land value capture in England

“…By 1972 the Conservatives had become concerned that the party might become linked with land speculation. In response they proposed significantly to increase the tax rate on land value gains(Weiler, 2013).…”