Last weekend’s Countryfile on BBC One looked at how the high cost of land is affecting farmers and would-be house buyers:
This week the team are in south Wales.
Matt Baker is on the Gower Peninsula to learn about a project that’s not only creating new structures from the fabric of the land but also building a future for the people on it.
Tom Heap asks whether our countryside has become a tax haven for the super-rich…
And in today’s Guardian, George Monbiot proposes some radical ways out:
But how does this affect us here in the Sid Valley?
The Futures Forum has looked at the bigger issues – and how a bad set-up in the London property markets works its way into the rest of the country:
Futures Forum: How does the London property market affect the UK?
We are not immune to a little direct offshore investment either:
Futures Forum: Property acquired in Sidmouth by offshore companies
Futures Forum: Knowle relocation project: of Paradise Papers and specialising in vulture funds
And meanwhile, the value of a bit of farmland has skyrocketed with the potential of planning permission being given – which is one reason why developers are not giving up:
Painting of the proposed site for an industrial estate at Sidford, currently agricultural land, donated at the campaign’s public meeting in June 2018. It heads the campaign’s Facebook pages:
Say NO to Sidford Business Park
Finally, as a ‘solution’, the idea of ‘capturing’ rises in land value is gaining ground considerably:
Futures Forum: Land Value Capture > “measures which could radically increase housebuilding”
As covered on the FF blog:
Futures Forum: A solution to our housing problems: share the increases in the value of land with local communities
Futures Forum: Land value tax > A growing number of thinktanks and politicians support imposing a tax that would take a slice of rising land values.
Futures Forum: A solution to our housing problems: tax land values and give councils powers to benefit from planning approval windfalls
Futures Forum: A solution to our housing problems: land value capture
Futures Forum: Council tax should be replaced by a land value tax
Futures Forum: Land Value Uplift Tax >>> “Public investment on or near a piece of land significantly increases its value wherever you are.”