How can we claim to live in a democracy when 70% of the land is owned by 1% of the people? Some of the biggest landowners are the Royal Family and a small group of aristocrats who acquired it centuries ago. The 'enclosures' was the process whereby big landowners acquired common land and removed its inhabitants in the name of agricultural progress in the 18th and 19th century. Remarkably, there has been no systematic land survey sincce the late 19th century - and even then, 50% of the land is not registered. It belongs to families that are off the grid that most of us live on. The claims of these families go back to the gifts of Henry VIII when he abolished the monasteries or even further back to William the Conqueror.
Kevin Cahill's excellent book Who Owns Britain?, which was published a year after the "right to roam" legislation of 2000, reveals that about 6,000 landowners own some 40m of Britain's 60m acres of land, and that 70% of the land is owned by 1% of the population. By contrast, 60 million people live in houses collectively occupying 4.4m acres.
The landowners include aristocrats and the crown. It took Cahill 13 years to follow well-hidden trails of ownership.
As Peter Lazenby wrote recently: The passing of a single bill repealing just one act of enclosure could begin the reversal of ownership at least of the common land stolen from the people. It's a vain hope that such a bill would succeed. But what a delight it would be to hear the squeals of protest from the land-owning gentry.
A land value tax could begin to redress the obscene inequalities of land ownership and wealth in Britain.
Kevin Cahill's excellent book Who Owns Britain?, which was published a year after the "right to roam" legislation of 2000, reveals that about 6,000 landowners own some 40m of Britain's 60m acres of land, and that 70% of the land is owned by 1% of the population. By contrast, 60 million people live in houses collectively occupying 4.4m acres.
The landowners include aristocrats and the crown. It took Cahill 13 years to follow well-hidden trails of ownership.
As Peter Lazenby wrote recently: The passing of a single bill repealing just one act of enclosure could begin the reversal of ownership at least of the common land stolen from the people. It's a vain hope that such a bill would succeed. But what a delight it would be to hear the squeals of protest from the land-owning gentry.
A land value tax could begin to redress the obscene inequalities of land ownership and wealth in Britain.
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