Author Archives: Joe Bourke

The  ALTER (libdemsalter.org.uk) fringe at Bournemouth will be held from 13.00 in the Sherborne Suite, Bournemouth Marriott Highcliff Hotel on Saturday 23rd September 2023.
The fringe is focused on the white paper published by the News | Albright Stonebridge Group that asserts Land Value Capture can finance Ukraine’s reconstruction, reduce corruption and boost productivity.

The white paper notes the following key takeaways:

• A broad consensus of economists throughout history have supported land value capture – collecting the increase in land value that results from public spending on infrastructure and other services – as

Next month’s conference in Brighton will include a consultative session on the Libdem manifesto and the Towards a fairer society policy motion. The motion addresses some immediate issues around welfare reform in proposing the restoration of the £20 uplift to Universal Credit, introducing emergency grants (not loans) and stopping deducting debt repayments at unaffordable rates. There are three options put forward with respect to party policy on a basic income.

OPTION 1:
replacing tax and national insurance allowances with a Universal Basic Income for working age adults, set at a level which would compensate for the loss of allowances (while retaining most …

UK inflation is today reported to be running at an annual rate of 4.2%. The labour market appears reasonably healthy at this point with the UK unemployment rate at 4.3%, vacancies broadly in line with unemployment numbers and labour shortages driving wages growth.

Inflation, however, hits those on low and fixed incomes hardest. The high levels are being driven by higher household gas and electricity prices UK inflation. While the Bank of England expects inflation to reach 5% next year before coming back down in the second half of 2022, the Labour shadow Chancellor said households would be left more …

Action for Land Taxation & Economic Reform (ALTER) will hold its conference fringe on Sunday, 19th September 2021 13:05 to 14:15. The theme of the fringe is simulating a land value tax funded Universal Basic Income.

A presentation followed by Q&A’s will be made by Nikhil Woodruff, technical lead at the UBI Center, a think tank researching universal basic income policies. He is also the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at PolicyEngine. Other contributors to the research include Max Ghenis president of the UBI Center, and co-founder and CEO of PolicyEngine and Charles Bauman, research assistant at

A key message of the party’s general election review was listen and act for the average voter, not ourselves. This has long been a basic tenet of local community politics that somehow does not seem to always translate to national campaigns.

A  Yougov survey last month found strong public support for three economic policies – paying people a universal basic income (UBI) to ensure their financial security, introducing a jobs guarantee to keep employment stable, and bringing in rent controls to limit housing costs. The survey also found that 81% of the public felt the government was not prepared for the Coronavirus crisis and 60% agree Britain is not prepared to deal with climate change.

The survey analyses level of support across party affiliation; Brexit vote; Gender; Age; Social grade and region.

In the theme of delivering a manifesto that is in accord with the desires of the average voter, here are my top five policies.

1. Full employment through a  job guarantee scheme as proposed by the TUC. This scheme would provide a minimum six months job with accredited training, paid at least the real living wage. The scheme should be funded by national government but delivered at regional and local level.

2 A Minimum Income Guarantee was proposed in the policy paper ‘A fairer share for all’ last year. Detailed research has been undertaken on a revenue-neutral Citizens Basic Income by Malcolm Torry. His research encompasses both a Coranavirus Recovery Basic Income and a subsequent sustainable revenue neutral Citizen’s Basic Income

The Daily Telegraph reports today that between furlough subsidies, benefit claimants, public sector workers and pensioners more than  half of all adults are now bankrolled by the state

As the prospect of an end to the easing of the lockdown draws nearer thoughts begin to turn to dealing with the fallout from the economic damage and what needs to be done to sustain households over the coming year.

YouGov has undertaken a  survey  that finds strong public support for three economic policies – paying people a universal basic income (UBI) to ensure their financial

The World Bank issued pandemic bonds in 2017 after the outbreak of the Ebola Virus in West Africa. They are a form of emergency aid to the health systems of the poorest countries eligible for funding from the International Development Association. However, as Bloomberg reports Pandemic Bonds these take a long-time to pay out and the sums are relatively small and nowhere near enough to deal with the scale of the crisis in third world countries.
What is required in developed nations now both for their own needs and to aid the poorest countries are Coronavirus bonds.

As the economic impact of the Covid-19 lockdown becomes clearer day by day the necessity of ensuring that millions are not left destitute by gaps in support systems becomes ever stronger.
The UK was already teetering on the edge of recession, as business confidence dried up in the face of a potentially hard Brexit.
Now, with a global recession underway, economists are predicting a slump in GDP of between 7.5% and 24% this quarter and we have already seen over 1m new claimants for registering for Universal Credit.
The New Economics Foundation (NEF) has published a policy document for a new proposal to …

Earlier this month, the UK regional airline Flybe became the first victim in the airline sector of the coronavirus outbreak, after failing to secure a £100 million government-guaranteed refinancing package.

This week UK airline bosses are calling for an immediate multibillion-pound emergency bailout to prevent the industry from potentially being wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic.

Virgin Atlantic’s chairman Peter Norris has written to the Prime Minister y saying the airline industry needs emergency government support worth 7.5 billion pounds or risks the loss of tens of thousands of jobs,
British Airways has warned, …

The Times today (Saturday, 24th August) published an article with the headline “Pimlico Plumbers boss Charlie Mullins turns on money tap for Jo Swinson’s Lib Dems.”
Charlie Mullins, a former high-profile Conservative donor has said that “he will help boost an election war chest being built by Jo Swinson.”.
It has been a heady few months for LibDems, following good local and EU election results and waking to the news on 31st May that a yougov poll had put the party top of a Westminster voting intention poll.
Westminster voting intention (Britain elects 30/05/2019)

LDem: 24% (+6)
Brex: 22% (+4)
Con: 19% (-5)
Lab: 19% (-5)
Grn: 8% …

The London Review of Books published a piece on Tom Crewe’s The Strange Death of Municipal England in 2016

The piece makes the point:
“Because councils have little political ‘ownership’ of the cuts they make – they are seen, rightly, as a consequence of central government decisions – normal accountability mechanisms cannot operate. Voting one party out of their council seats and another in won’t make much difference: whichever party is in control will face the same financial situation, and will have as little choice about reducing services. Labour and the Liberal Democrats won control of Walsall council from the Conservatives in May , having campaigned to protect the town’s libraries from closure: in October they announced plans to close 15 of its 16 libraries, admitting that the budget restrictions were ‘more severe’ than anticipated.”

The  Resolution Foundation has published its annual report on living standards. Key findings include:

• Average disposable household incomes have roughly tripled since 1961, after accounting for inflation. But the last two-year period (2017-18 and 2018-19) looks to have been the worst on record outside of recessions.
• This period of weak growth post-referendum comes on the back of both the financial crisis as well as an earlier mid-2000s slowdown for some, with only a short period of healthy income recovery between 2012-13 and 2016-17.
• The groups most at risk of relative poverty have also changed. Parents living in couples, up …

Grounds for Change is an important new book for all those who campaign for economic justice.
The price of land in impacts on Local Council’s ability to increase the supply of homes for rent. This is particularly the case in London and other major towns and cities. Southwark’s Cabinet Member for Social Regeneration, Great Estates and New Council Homes notes:
Council has over 20,000 thousand people on its housing waiting list. Many of those ‘waiting for a home’ are children… thousands have no prospect of finding an affordable, secure and decent place to live unless it is provided by their local Council. …

George Monbiot has published an article this week on a report he has co-authored Want to tackle inequality? Then first change our land ownership laws

His opens with a question “ What is the most neglected issue in British politics? I would say land. Literally and metaphorically, land underlies our lives, but its ownership and control have been captured by a tiny number of people. The results include soaring inequality and exclusion; the massive cost of renting or buying a decent home; the collapse of wildlife and ecosystems; repeated financial crises; and the loss of public space. Yet for 70 years this crucial issue has scarcely featured in political discussions.”

He recounts “Since 1995, land values in this country have risen by 412%. Land now accounts for an astonishing 51% of the UK’s net worth. Why? In large part because successive governments have used tax exemptions and other advantages to turn the ground beneath our feet into a speculative money machine.”

“We pay for these distortions every day. Homes have become so expensive not because the price of bricks and mortar has risen, but because the land that underlies them now accounts for 70% of their price. Twenty years ago, the average working family needed to save for three years to afford a deposit. Today, it must save for 19 years. Life is even worse for renters. ”

Monbiot writes “A Labour government should replace council tax with a progressive property tax, payable by owners, not tenants. Empty homes should automatically be taxed at a higher rate. Inheritance tax should be replaced with a lifetime gifts tax levied on the recipient. Capital gains tax on second homes and investment properties should match or exceed the rates of income tax. Business rates should be replaced with a land value tax, based on rental value.”

Mark Pack recently addressed Hounslow Liberal Democrats on his views concerning growing party support. During his talk he focused on branding and relevance
Listening to Mark I was reminded of the work of Michael Porter and his approach to strategy development. Porter in the 1980s determined that there are only three possible strategies that any commercial organisation can adopt – Low cost, differentiation or focus (market niche). Within a focus strategy, a low-cost or differentiation approach can be adopted.
According to Porter, what is fatal for any organisation is to get stuck in the middle. Essentially, organisations must seek cost leadership …

Manchester Lib Dems have launched a local manifesto calling for a reverse of Labour’s 22% Council Tax increase for the least well off in Manchester.

The 2018 report of the APPG on Land Value Capture http://bit.ly/APPG-LVC-Report-1 concluded that: Council Tax …is overdue for replacement with a fairer system of property taxation.

The IPPR report on council tax reform https://www.ippr.org/research/publications/a-poor-tax-council-tax-in-london notes:
“…leaving council tax unreformed is becoming ever more unsustainable. Local authorities across the country are increasingly cash strapped as a consequence of government cuts to their core grant funding and limits on their ability to raise funds through council tax and other sources.”

The resolution foundation report https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/media/blog/its-time-to-properly-abolish-the-poll-tax/ suggests council tax reform would leave a large majority of people better off even while raising enough cash to …increase funding for health and social care and reverse government cuts to council tax reduction schemes.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation 2014 report After the Council Tax: impacts of property tax reform on people, places and house prices https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/after-council-tax-impacts-property-tax-reform-people-places-and-house-prices found that:
– A progressive property value tax would reduce the size of median gross bills by £279 a year compared to the council tax.
– The bills of almost two-thirds of households would fall by more than 10%, while less than one quarter would see increases of more than 10%.
– A progressive property tax would reduce the gross median bills for the poorest tenth of households by £202, and increase them for the top tenth by £184.
The housing economist Professor Muellbaeur argues “that a radical reform of property taxation makes economic sense and could be more acceptable politically than tinkering at the edges, by adding a few more bands to Council Tax.

Much of the debate around austerity has focused on three principal areas; the underfunding of key public services at both national and local government level, welfare reforms and the adverse effects of constrained public spending on economic growth.
As a general fiscal rule when the economy is operating at what is considered by the Treasury as normal capacity with relatively low levels of employment, tax receipts should be sufficient to cover outgoings including the amortised cost of prior capital expenditure i.e. there is no structural deficit. In normal times, capital expenditure and the associated borrowings will be budgeted to allow for …

In between all the furor around Brexit, there is continuing cross-party work on other issues of import in Parliament.

In a press release this week, Vince Cable noted:

“…the major effect of Help to Buy is to drive up demand while having no effect on supply. Prices go up and buyers are forced off the housing ladder. The result is not help for those who need it, but a boost to the profits of big developers.
Liberal Democrats have set out how government could be delivering 300,000 homes a year over the next decade, by creating a British Housing Company as a dedicated, not-for-profit body to build on land acquired compulsorily without profits from land scarcity.”

Also this week Norman Lamb co-sponsored a ten-minute rule bill concerned with affordable housing to rent. The bill was presented by Helen Hayes, Labour member for Dulwich and West Norwood, with cross-party support, and is available on the BBC Parliament Channel https://tinyurl.com/y5zfdfs3.

The bills principal aims are to:

1. To re-establish the link between the definition of affordable homes for rent and income, replacing the current definition of up to 80% of the market price with a definition of:
“No more than 35% of net household income for lowest quartile income groups in each local authority area.”

2. To create a new requirement in planning law for local planning authorities to have a duty to include a policy in their local plans to capture betterment values where they arise, formally establishing a legal duty in the planning system to capture land value to be used for the benefit of communities.

The Treasury Select Committee has launched an inquiry into Business Rates, to examine their impact on business, including Business Rates retention and alternatives to property-based taxes, such as the proposed digital services tax. Crucially the inquiry will consider the impact of changes (proposed and actual) of Business Rates on Local Authorities and Councils, and the High Street.

Sebastian McCarthy in City Am quotes Nicky Morgan MP, chair of the treasury committee: “Many high street businesses are struggling to remain competitive. It has been estimated that 10,000 shops will close this year. Unless action is taken, closures could continue and job losses …

Shelter has published the final report of its cross-party commission on  Social Housing setting out the need for 3.1m new social homes over the next 20 years.

The report makes the case that council houses and social housing should be available to more than just the people in greatest need and those saving to buy. As well as the 1.3 million people it estimates are in greatest need because of hazardous homes, overcrowding, homelessness and disabilities, the new homes should be accessible to a further 1.2 million young people and 700,000 older people trapped in private rent. The commission puts the provision of housing on a par with health and education.

The plans have been costed at up to £225bn. But savings to the £21bn annual housing benefit bill and the economic boost created by the programme means it would pay for itself inside 40 years, according to fiscal modelling for the commission by Capital Economics

The analysis suggests that that two-thirds of the annual investment cost of £10.7bn a year would be clawed back through housing benefit savings and extra tax revenue and the programme would pay for itself in full after 39 years.

Delivering 3m+ social homes by 2040 will require half of the 300,000 annual house building target to come from the public sector.

Key to this objective is the cost of Land. Build costs of new developments have increased by more than 40% since the financial crisis almost entirely due to the cost of land.

Sir Andrew Dilnot in his evidence to the HCLG select committee on funding of adult social care said:
“there is no consensus on where the money should come from. That is what is always politically most toxic for Governments. The debate is much more now about where the money should come from than about what the money should be spent on. My advice for any institution trying to build consensus would be try to focus on that.”
Council tax in its present form and the supplementary social precept creates an inequitable distribution of the tax burden. A Land Value Tax is not …

Panorama this week revealed large numbers of social housing tenants on Universal Credit owe more than double in rent arrears on average than benefit claimants on the legacy Housing Benefit scheme.
The new benefits scheme is sending many council tenant’s rent arrears spiralling. Research conducted by the show revealed that across much of the UK, Universal Credit (UC) claimants owe local authorities an average of £662.56, compared with £262.50 on the Housing Benefit scheme…

Universal Credit was rolled out in Flintshire, North Wales in April 2017. UC claimants there owe the council an …

Housing First is an approach to homelessness that focuses on housing homeless people immediately, whatever their needs, and giving them direct control over their own support and treatment. The programme works by putting people in touch with housing providers, health workers, social care staff and other services.

While there are about 4,750 rough sleepers in England (many with mental health and addiction problems), there are far larger numbers of homeless families in temporary accommodation. Few homeless families have the high support needs of rough sleepers; most are poor. What these families need first and foremost is an adequate, affordable home.

Housing First …

Radical Liberalism is a distinctive philosophy that presents a superior alternative both to capitalism in its established form and to socialism. Existing capitalism, as propounded by the Conservatives, and socialism as proposed by Labour, are systems both based on the concentration of property and power in few hands.
The central principles of capitalism in its purest form are the free exchange of goods in an unregulated market; limited taxes to pay for limited government, and
private ownership of property.
The central principles of socialism are government control or regulation of the market; high taxes to pay for expanded government services; and government ownership …

One year on from the tragedy of the Grenfell fire a public inquiry is underway to ascertain how such a thing could have happened in a modern building in the middle of London.

What has struck me about this whole event is the frustration and powerlessness that tenants and leaseholders express over the ability to control their own lives and safety.

Property tenure has changed greatly in recent decades. Right to buy has changed the composition of public housing developments. They will frequently include a mix of leasehold apartments, shared ownership and traditional …

Switzerland’s system of direct democracy includes the right to submit a federal initiative and a referendum, both of which may overturn a parliamentary decision.
Last year they held a referendum on a Universal basic income and last Sunday they had one on re-establishing sovereignty over money creation as per this economist article https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/06/09/a-referendum-on-the-way-money-is-created.

The proposal would have brought an end to the fractional reserve banking system in Switzerland. The central bank would have become the only provider of Swiss francs in a full reserve system. In other words, commercial banks would no longer …