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The failure of the land value tax
Land value taxes are once again becoming a popular all-purpose solution to housing issues. But implementing them in early 1900s Britain destroyed the then-dominant Liberal Party.
Worst of all, it not only failed to solve the fundamental problem with British local government – that it had responsibilities that it could not afford to cover with its narrow base – but actually contributed to the long-term crumbling of the property tax systems Britain did have. In 1903, the Conservative government of Arthur Balfour imploded over its handling of the Boer War, including public revulsion at its use of concentration camps, and colonial secretary Joseph Chamberlain ’s resignation to begin a campaign of tariff reform. Landowners formed an organization known as the Land Union, which began a program of high-profile legal attrition – subjecting every ambiguity of the law to judicial review – to test the complex and hurriedly made legislation in the courts.
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