Professor Peter Ambrose raises the 1947 planning regulations that allowed councils to designate development land. he contends this led parts of the housing industry to concentrate on land speculation rather than development. Stephen Hill takes this issue up. Peter traces these adverse effects to the shortcomings in the 1947 Planning system – which ‘draws the map of land values’ without sufficient benefit for the public interest from the immense uplift in value – the Swedish system of land delivery in the 1990s was a much more effective system – and there are better systems elsewhere in mainland Europe – would an annual land value tax on the highest permitted use be a way forward? – or a tax at a high rate on trades in land with planning consent.

See the Z2K Response to the 2009 UK Budget

Z2K Housing Review April 2009 Issue One: Contents