The tax will therefore directly , encourage ribbon develop- ment. Indeed,
I am credibly assured that even its remote threat is already having this effect on landowners who were willing to lose profit for the sake of amenity. It is na wonder that the C.P.R.E., just now delighted with the Government's averred sympathy with their ideals, are in despair at the slaughter of an Act that, they hoped, had really marked a new era in the conservation of Britain. The ground the town planners are already reserving for amenities and husbandry is given an artificial value as alleged building land. An urban and Philistine device ousts a rural and Paradisiacal ideal. The morbid desire to fine the owner of land puts money in his purse against his own wish. Personally, if it is any use declaring it, I may add that I have long been ardently in favour or taxing what was not badly christened "unearned increment," but not at the price of destroying the beauty of this "swans' nest in an ocean," this England.. Nor is it essential to any effort to "save for the public values created by the public " that ribbon development should be artificially encouraged.
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