* * * * At the end of the debate
on the Finance Bill in the House of Commons on Tuesday night a clause was added to the Bill which will do away with the last remnant of Mr. Lloyd George's scheme in the so-called People's Budget of 1909 for the taxation of site values. The voices of that great controversy are now hushed, let us hope for ever. Mr. Lloyd George was, as he told the world, going to solve the housing problem by putting an end to the landlords' practice of ho.ding on to land that ought to be used for building in order to enjoy an unearned increment. The actual result of the application of Henry George's principles was to deal a deadly blow to the building industry. Confidence vanished. Mr. Lloyd George had overlooked the simple isect that the price of land was but a minute percentage of the total cost in every building operation. The taxes on site values cost more to collect than they brought in. In 1920, with general consent—even Mr. Lloyd George's own rueful consent—they were abolished.
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