[Footprint] Land Value Tax use

One concept that has been of growing interest to me over the last year or so is Land Value Tax:

Starting with the concept of the commons: The idea that creation is the inheritence of all humankind, the air, the sea, the land, minerals, oil. This agrees with the Old Testament teaching of Jubilee where the intention was that all people would have their lands restored to them on a fifty year cycle, allowing a fair and equal inheritence.

Let's face it inheritence of land is extremely diverse in this country, some get loads, some get none.

So how on earth do you set about redistributing the land and it's mineral resources?

Well the key to that is don't! What Land Value Tax (LVT) does is to redistribute the wealth of nature without redistributing nature itself.

So basically this is the idea:
1. The Commons (nature) is owned by all.
2. If someone wants exclusive access to a part of the commons (e.g. they want a plot of land to live on or to work on and they want to be able to call it their own and exclude others from it) then they have to compensate society for that privilege.
3. So basically we have a tax on the value of the land. This is effectively a rent that a land user pays to society.
4. In turn society as a whole has an income from the land - the 'rent' (or tax) that is collected.
5. This rent can either be used for public services or can be dished out to everyone equally. Usually a combination of the two would be normal.
6. If you 'own' a small amount of land (or you could say 'rent' a small amount of land from society) then you will only pay out a small amount in rent, however, you will still receive an income from other people's rent, so you will be a net beneficiary.
7. Effectively you can have an equal share of the land without actually having to pay out - i.e. your income will equal your outgoing if you own a fair and equal share.
8. If, say, you have a business idea where you need a larger share of land (i.e. your business will be benefitting from that land, as that land is necessary for the business' profit) you will be paying society for that larger share.
9. In the UK there is about 4,000 square meters of land per person. However, this land is a mix of city, farmland, forest, beach, moor, bog etc.
10. We all know that city land is the most valuable. A small plot of land in Kensington may be worth £1m whereas that same size plot in Cornwall may only be worth £50k. Also we know that land with development permissions on it is more valuable than land that can only be used for say farming.
11. The 'tax' is on the unimproved value of the land and depends on the nature of the land itself and it's location and the permissions on it.

So you get what you are willing to pay for. There is a market value for the land.

LVT creates land justice and discourages land hoarding type speculation.
LVT liberates people from the situation of coercion where they are forced to work for land owners to enable themselves to survive.
LVT does not discourage development (as you don't get penalised for making good use of land - like you do with the Council Tax, which penalises you for building a big house).
LVT discourages sprawl as it discourages people from siting small homes on large plots in cities and encourages people to make the best possible use of city land.
LVT could replace all other taxation. Taxation on income is, for example, a perverse tax as it discourages work and wealth creation.

Anyway, that is a starter. I've been interested in it for some time now, it never ceases to amaze me with what it can achieve in terms of justice.

Some useful links:
http://www.progress.org/geonomy/
http://www.newstatesman.co.uk/landreform/lr200409200001.htm
http://www.henrygeorge.org/mikerent.htm
http://www.labourland.org/lvt/what_is_lvt.php
http://www.earthrights.net/