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Interview with Adrian Sanders MP |
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Adrian Sanders MP, Liberal Democrat spokesman on Housing and Local Government, wants Land Value Tax on the political agenda so people can see its benefits
 It is a tradition at Liberal Democrat conferences for the gathered activists and supporters to celebrate the fact that the land belongs to the people by singing The Land Song.
However, Adrian Sanders, who speaks on the subject for the Party, believes people in Britain have become distracted from the fact that land is not just another commodity like cars or other personal belongings, and don't realise that almost everything is built on land.
In his shadow role Sanders sat on the Committee that reviewed the Government's Land Registration Bill. The proposed legislation went almost unnoticed (see page 4) but Sanders's questioning revealed some worrying facts about the paucity of information held by the Land Registry.
The Land Registry itself recommended that the register needed completion but the Government ignored this and it seems they have got away with it, but Sanders is almost resigned to this outcome.
As he told Land and Liberty: “If you've been waiting two centuries and nobody's done anything about it, then it isn't a shock to find it may take another century before you have a comprehensive land register.
“Unless you can see the benefit of having that register and the options it opens up to government particularly in relation to a tax on land values - you really wouldn't consider it as that important.
“It's a technical Bill really, not a political Bill that's probably why its being dealt with by lawyers, rather than by politicians who would bring a political dimension to it.
“Very few of us realise that there is politics in there that it isn't just about electronic conveyancing but is really about opening up political options in relation to Land Value Tax.
Sanders actually believes the issue is not so much legal as economic. In his speech in last December's Standing Committee, he seemed to focus on farmland and the rural economy.
Was he applying Third World economics? Agricultural land, after all, is only a small part of total land values here, so why did he give it such importance?
Sanders explains: “I agree that these things matter more in urban areas. I'm not sure we did put so much emphasise farm land. I was just talking in general about the principle, using farmland, rather than about specifics.
“There are two things we've got to do. One is to get LVT on the agenda so people consider it as an option and can see the benefits of it to them personally. Secondly, we must put in very simple terms how it would work and how it would be introduced.
“You could start out by ignoring agricultural land altogether and concentrate on its contribution to urban regeneration in the parts of the country where demand for property is lowest.
The Liberal Democrats accept that reform of property taxation is a key part of urban policy. But (outside Liverpool) they don't campaign on it.
With even some key figures in the property industry accepting that owners should contribute to infrastructure costs and the White Paper on local government positively encouraging owners to voluntarily contribute to Business Improvement Districts does he think his Party should be making more of this policy? Couldn't he be pushing at an open door with site value rating at the present time?
“I certainly see it as a solution to many of the problems that the Government is currently facing and unable to address, Sanders believes. “There are many parts of the country that feel they are not getting a fair deal, and are currently feeling a sense of helplessness.
“I think this policy addresses much of that. It is about reducing the inequalities between different parts of the country, especially on house prices. There doesn't seem to be any policy proposal from this Government to tackle that.
“If you were to introduce LVT you would expect it to influence investment decisions, away from the parts of the country that are overheated, spreading out the wealth across the country towards the peripheral areas. These already have natural barriers in the way of growth in terms of geography and hence transport links.
Property Week believes a land tax is old hat, and a form of nationalisation. The Henry George Foundation is among those bodies trying to change this image and re-brand it as The Smart Tax.
What is Sanders' advice to those who make it their business to promote these ideas? What can Land & Liberty readers do to help you as a politician to achieve the widely shared aim of sustainable land management?
“The key is in the last three words: ’sustainable land management' what's that got to do with Pop Idol and life in general? asks Sanders.
“All that people are worried about is just getting by. We have the policy that could answer their problems but it sounds complex and convoluted and is not generally understood.
“How do we simplify the way that we explain the tax? The first thing we have to do is to put it about what it would actually achieve, concentrate on the solutions it offers, rather than on the rather complicated aspects of how it actually works. That's probably the way forward. I don't have a sound bite. But part of the problem of politics today is that we all want need sound bites.
The Liberal Democrat policy unit has told its LVT campaign group ALTER that their chance to influence matters is in the planning policy review.
What should the Lib Dem response be to Government proposals for Development Tariffs? Is this the time to put forward something really radical, perhaps call for all landowners to pay for development not just developers?
“We've got to put it forward wherever we can, whether you're talking about planning or local government reform or the way we share out wealth between regions and nations, believes Sanders.
“I don't think the Government's proposed planning reforms are radical at all. I think [the Government] misses a wonderful opportunity to introduce the concept of third party rights of appeal. That's going to be the issue with the planning
green paper, not necessarily the taxation of land. But it wouldn't hurt if that were the issue we can get people to talk about.
The ’right' to own land is not like other rights. As it says in the The Land Song, we're all beggars without access to land. Does Sanders believe there is a danger in allowing human rights legislation to threaten the state's so-called ’police right' to manage land use?
“If you're going to win the hearts and minds of people for a change in the tax system it isn't going to be through attacking their rights of either access to countryside or to land ownership.
“You've got to convince them that their kids are going to be able to afford to grow up in this country and not see inequalities in health and jobs that all the economic opportunities aren't 100 miles down the road. That their taxes are based in some way on ability to pay and are not aggressive taxes like Council Tax.
“It's got to be a policy that really matters to the single parent in the council estate as much as it does to his lordship in the stately manor.
On the issue of making the policy popular, in Lloyd George's time the Land Campaign of 1913-14 there were hundreds of meetings a day around the country, addressed to ordinary people. We're not doing that now. How do we reach people?
“Today there's a great gap between the political classes and the mass of voters. I was talking only recently with a journalist about how to use new technology to help rebuild communities.
“I told him it wasn't actually going to make much difference using computers to vote. It's actually about opening up decision making and bringing government closer to the people having them involved and informed about how the system works and how they can influence it, especially when things go wrong for them.
“I don't think we're addressing the issue enough, about how to engage people in political debate and inform them not in my Party or in any party. Nowadays I don't think you could hold a public meeting about how we tax ourselves without it being attended by only those people who are absolutely obsessed with the issue. But that doesn't mean it isn't a very important issue.
It must be very frustrating for politicians to find it so difficult to get serious issues before the voters. Does Sanders feel that this policy will never happen? Would he bet on some form of real Smart Tax not the failed old Betterment Levy repackaged as Development Tariff being in place in this country in, say, 10 or 15 years?
“I just wouldn't bet! If there wasn't some chance of achieving these ideas, there would be no point in me carrying on doing the job I do, says Sanders. “You have to be optimistic about the future. I think a lot of this is about trying to find the right language the right form of presentation, which is actually very sad.
“You think its all about high values and principles but you can have the best policies in the world and unless you're communicating them in the words that people can understand then they're not going to become policies that achieve anything that get implemented.
“We do have to look very carefully at how we put this across and how we involve people in making the choices that there are. This is not just a subject for debating societies. This is real politics. This is one of the most important issues on which our generation has to make a choice.
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