YP Letters: Land value tax to tackle housing crisis

YOU highlight the scandal of builders hoarding land at a time when people are desperate for houses (The Yorkshire Post, January 8). As an answer, you suggest that the Chancellor should consider imposing the council tax on every such planned house.

A far more logical and equitable solution is to switch all rating from property values to land values. It is, after all, not the bricks and mortar that increase in value but the land.

What is more, the value of land is determined by the planning permission agreed for it by the public authority, hence it is logical that the public purse should benefit from those decisions. If land is valued at its maximum development value, it solves the problem of hoarding land, whether by builders, supermarkets, railways or any other landowners who would find it too expensive not to go ahead with the planned development. Ironically, I suspect it is because this policy has been around for almost 140 years that it is disregarded, even though it has been successfully implemented in a number of other countries.

From: Guy Kitchen, Walton.

WE are bombarded with complaints of housing shortages. yet we are told by the building industry there is a skills shortage yet we continue to build houses exactly the same way we have done for a century or more i.e. bricks and and mortar.

Surely it’s time to look at other countries and take the best practises for use here?

I know in Germany, USA and no doubt elsewhere, houses are prefabricated in factories, timber built houses are ubiquitous in North America (and in Tudor times here and many still stand). In Belgium, much of the house building is done with waterproof poured concrete and concrete slab floors.

Doors and windows come pre-built, painted and glazed to the highest standard.

Building times are much quicker than here and the end result is a very efficient, carefully-built home. We could be so much better if our builders looked at best practice around the world.

You highlight the scandal of builders hoarding land at a time when people are desperate for houses (January 8). As an answer, you suggest that the Chancellor should consider imposing the council tax on every such planned house.

Freedom from EU

From: Peter Baxter, Ripon.

ALAN Halsall, chairman of Business for Britain, is absolutely right: Britain has a fabulous future outside the EU.

I was born in 1973, the year Britain joined and in that time we have sent over half a trillion pounds in membership fees, and in the next 43 years we are sure to be sending at least a further trillion. Imagine the benefits of saving £350m pounds a week, enough to build 52 new hospitals each year. Britain would be free to strike trade deals globally including with booming markets in China and India, something we are unable to do whilst being members of the EU.

It seems to me that the real risk to the United Kingdom is to remain a member of an organisation that is not fit for purpose in the 21st century.

Sharing in the cost of care

From: Canon Michael Storey, Healey Wood Road, Brighouse.

YOUR Editorial (The Yorkshire Post, January 9) was spot on.

It is vital that the Government takes heed to the issues expressed recently by various bodies concerning the proper funding of the NHS and social care, in particular of people aged over 65.

NHS and social care costs should be shared by the whole of the population of the country. Asking local town halls to impose a two per cent levy on council tax bills is grossly unfair.

Local authorities do not all have the same mix of properties. Hence I guess that some areas will be able to afford better care than others – something absolutely contrary the idea of a National Health Service.

Surely it would be fairer if income tax was increased so that increased costs would be shared much more fairly? Perhaps the Government is too scared to do this “fair thing” at a risk of losing votes at a future election?

Room to make point

From: Coun Tim Mickleburgh (Lab), Grimsby.

I WAS rather bemused by the letter from Dr JP Whiteley (The Yorkshire Post, January 6) saying that political letters to you tended to be from the right, whereas Tweets tend to be from the left. He then outrageously said that “140 characters is about as much as the left can manage”.

Well I’m a Socialist, and have always written to you since I first moved to Hebden Bridge in 1987. I now email out of convenience, especially as the cost of a first class stamp is now 63p. Sometimes my letters are short, sometimes longer, depending on the point I have to make.

For whereas certain issues call for a simple response, others such as our EU membership or reaction to flooding, need a more detailed analysis.

This is why I don’t like Look North’s viewers’ feedback as they never go into enough depth.

You, however, give us a broadsheet page to discuss the issues of the day, and long may that continue!