Reclaiming our Common Wealth: new book commissioned

Submitted by Tony Vickers on Wed, 30/05/2007 - 15:12.

A new book aimed at 'grassroots politicians' who want to quickly understand why Tax Shifting is today not only more vital than ever but also more achievable is due to be published in time for the Party conference season. An on-line draft called Tax Shift Now! - Regaining Our Common Wealth has been available for 18 months but now the author has found a publisher for the printed version.

Land policy researcher and Liberal Democrat councillor Tony Vickers, who helped launch the 1909 Group, invites people to discuss the book here in the forums at 1909.org.uk.

Tony Vickers has been a member of the Lib Dems' Tax Commission, set up by Charles Kennedy after the last General Election, which has just submitted its second and final report to the Party. He has studied the politics and techniques of modern property taxation for ten years and is a Fellow of the American Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, as well as lecturer in Green Tax at Kingston University London.

The book was part-funded in 2005 by former Joseph Rowntree Foundation Director Lord Richard Best, to inform the debate on land value taxation which was centred during the current Parliament on inquiries into housing land supply by Kate Barker and into local government finance by Sir Michael Lyons.

Vickers touches on the ethics, history and potential impact on modern society of the ideas of Henry (and Lloyd) George before setting out a possible political 'route map' to full UK implementation of LVT over the next ten years: "2009 could be when a modern Peoples Budget is enacted - but will Gordon Brown take up the mantle of the Webbs and Beveridge?", says Vickers. His book contains a comprehensive section on further reading and - in the longer online version attached below - contains numerous links to other websites.

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LVT FreeThink Ignition.pdf	847.08 KB

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Which publisher?

Submitted by Tony Vickers on Wed, 30/05/2007 - 17:57.

ALTER President Chris Huhne MP has agreed to write a Foreword to the book. He suggests that I should stick with CentreForum as publisher. The publisher who has offered to help me get the book out has a good track record of publishing books on LVT but not with a 'political' slant, whereas CentreForum is a recognised centre-left liberal think-tank with a strong presence at Lib Dem conferences. If I am going to have to subsidise the project, which should I go for? Comments welcomed.

My "Ignition" piece on LVT

Submitted by Tony Vickers on Wed, 30/05/2007 - 17:46.

The paper was written nearly 2 years ago, to inform the Lib Dem Tax Commission discussions. Whilst last year's TC, chaired by Mike Williams, made excellent progress staking out the 'route map' to UK 21st century LVT which my paper outlined, the grass has been allowed to grow around those stakes this year, with Dick Newby in the chair. Hardly any of the supporters of LVT attended TC meetings (there were other unrelated aspects of tax policy to be developed as well) and when the scheduled meeting on domestic property taxes came, Newby 'ambushed' me and ended the discussion before it had even begun. It appears that 'higher powers' within the Party decided months ago that taxing homes was something which Lib Dems must not do, the excuse being that it 'confuses the Axe The Tax' (scrap Council Tax) message. Yet there is no polling evidence that 'fairer property taxes' are less popular than taxes on earnings (of either labour or capital).

The only possibility of forcing a debate at this year's Lib Dem Conference on LVT is to table an amendment to the Motion in support of the TC report (which doesn't mention property tax at all, except to flesh out existing policy on replacing Business Rates with Site Value Rating). The main purpose of getting this paper updated and printed now is to enable it to reach as many Conference voting reps as possible in time for that debate. Prior to that, using this online version, we have to collect signatures in support of the ALTER/LVT amendment being debated at all.

It will cost me £3000 to get the paper printed and I would appreciate any contributions, either donations or pre-paid orders of copies. It will probably have a cover price of around £10 and I will take £5 for orders of 10 or more.