LAND, NATIONALIZATION
[To the Editor_ of THE SPECTATOR.] .
Sin,—The Socialist League, of which Sir, Stafford Cripps is President, has made clear that the policy of the Labour Party, in power, would be, first, Nationalization of the Banks and the Land. This rules out the rival scheme of taxation of land values. The advantages of the former are much greater. The essential difference is that taxation does nothing to secure permanently for communal benefit the land value created by the presence and activities of population, unless it were applied on the principles of Henry George, which are confisr eateryd unthinkable.- Taxation would be continually raising the question of what proportion of the composite subject was to be attributed to site and what to structure. - Land Nationalization as promulgated by the Labour Party does not include buildings, so that the same- difficulty of apportionment arises. There is no final solution of the pro- blem but complete expropriation of the land and the buildings upon it on a reasonable basis of compensation. Concurrently with this announcement, comes the resolve of the present Government to, repeal, the Land Values tax in Part III of the Finance Act, 1931, attributed to Viscount Snowden. The substitution of Land Nationalization for Land Value taxation will, perhaps, not surprise the Viscount, for it will be a rever- sion to the principle of the Bill that he backed in 1923 to achieve that object.. This Bill did, not include buildings except in the case of agricultural hind.—I am, Sir, &R.,
Previous page
