Great Britain

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, The,  Dec, 2000  by Owen Connellan,  Nathaniel Lichfield

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Yet, on the other hand, it is interesting and significant to note that, even after a hundred years, the supporters of the Henry George tradition in Britain, as well as in various groupings of societies and foundations around the world, are still actively pursuing George's precepts on land taxation and arguing his case. The United Committee for the Taxation of Land Values was founded in 1907. It is now known as the Henry George Foundation and publishes the quarterly journal, Land and Liberty, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1994. Other active groups in Britain include the Land Value Taxation Campaign, the Land Policy Council and the Scottish Ogilvie Council.

II

Community Betterment (Value Capture) from Development Value in Britain

HAVING EXAMINED THE attempts at public revenue raising by means of direct land-value taxation, we now turn to the second strand of Government measures, namely, development value capture, or the effort to recover "betterment"--i.e., increased value from development activity.

A. Early Provisions for Betterment

Two threads in the fabric of the history of this country indicate the application of the principle of betterment for the community:

(i) payment according to benefits received or dangers avoided--being benefits which were the deliberate objective of the projected improvements--most frequently represented by sewers and drainage rates; and

(ii) payment (whether by direct charge or set-off against compensation) in respect of benefits received by public improvements--being benefits which were incidental to the direct objective of the projected improvements--e.g. through the widening of roads.

The first thread remains unbroken from the Middle Ages to the present day, when it is represented by differential rates under the Land Drainage Act, 1930. The second thread first appeared in 1662, but after a few years is broken and does not reappear until about 1830.

The earliest statute giving effect to the principle of assessment of contributions according to benefits was an Act of 1427 (6 Henry VI, c.5) appointing Commissioners of Sewers for ten years to supervise works for sea defence wherever they might be required. The principle on which the sewage rates were levied under a later Statute (of 1531) was that "everyone whose property derives benefit from the works of the Commissioners may be assessed to the rates they impose." Some authorities have doubted whether this is an example of the principle of betterment, for the sewer rate was in fact in the nature of an improvement rate levied over the area (or, in some cases, on the individual properties) adjudged to be benefited by the sewage works, and not necessarily only upon areas or properties for whose benefit the works were deliberately executed. But it certainly appears to contain the germ of the principle of betterment, and it is clear that the principle is by no means a recent innovation. It was adopted by Parli ament as long ago as 1662 in the Act 13 & 14 Charles II, c.2, though the word used is not betterment but melioration. The Act provided (inter alia) for the widening of certain streets in London and provided powers to assess upon owners and occupiers of such houses, "such competent sum or sums or annual rent in consideration of such improvement and melioration as in recent and good conscience they shall judge and think fit." A similar provision was included in the Act for the Rebuilding of London after the Great Fire, 1667 (18 & 19 Charles II, c.3).