Carol Wilcox, Jeremy Scroxton and Linda Buckingham respond to proposals to replace local government funding arrangements
Re Larry Elliott’s article (A property tax based on annually uprated values would be a gamechanger, 9 April), a proportional property tax (PPT) is indeed fairer than council tax. In particular, it reverses the bizarre taxing of occupants rather than owners. But it wastes an opportunity to improve the whole UK property tax system. According to the Office for National Statistics, land value represents 60% of the UK’s wealth, and 70% of the land is owned by 1% of the population.
Concentrated land ownership is the driver of the UK’s gross wealth inequality and housing misery for so many. Why should vast country estates and farms be inherited tax-free or bought by billionaires? No one made land – it is our common wealth, and a land value tax (LVT) is how it can be fairly shared.
