TAXING LAND VALUES

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 95, 23 April 1931, Page 11

TAXING LAND VALUES

In Ms Budget speech last year, Mr. Snowden announced that the Government favoured the of landvalues, but he added that before the tax could be levied it was necessary to have a proper, valuation. Subsequently the Government introduced the Valuation of Land Bill, and the measure was printed and circulated, but it was found impossible to take the second reading, apparently on account of the pressure of. the rank and file of .the Government [following to proceed with tho Trades Disputes Bill. It would seem apparently that the Government contemplates providing'for valuation and taxation in the Finance Bill, thus depriving the the House of Lords of the opportunity to reject valuation, unless they are.prepared to rejoct. the Finance Bill. : In this connection it is interesting to recall tho statement made by Mr. Snowden in the Budget debate in the House of Commons on 16th April of last year."There is only one other matter to : which I must make some reference, and that is the taxation, of land values. Some, of my friends have expressed regret that it has not been possible to introduce this proposal into the Budget. I should have liked to have done it. The right honourable gentleman' the member for Carnarvon ; (Mr. Lloyd George) raised the same question quite mildly. But he does not understand the difference between 'to-day and 1909: :- ■■"'•.' .■■.■-' •-'■'■

"The right honourable gentleman appears to have f orgotteii that the Budget in which ho brought forward those 'proposals took 189 days in Committee in this House,that it took 12 months to a day to get the Finance Bill through, and then only after -a General Election. : .'-■'■■■'" "Something has happened since then. Only the older members of the House will remember Mr. Tommy Bowles, who got passed through this House' the Collection of Taxes Act. Under that Act there is a time-table for the stages of the Finance Bill, and if we do not get the Bill by a certain date the resolutions'lapse and the financial system of the country is thrown into chaos. "The Finance Bill must become law by 4th August. If it does not, we cannot collect taxes/and everyone who has paid taxes undor the Finance Bill can claim to have them repaid. "I am as anxious as most landfcaxcrs that this question ■should; be dealt with' as expoditiously as possible.^ Some ■of my land-tax friends, are very 'difficult people, to please. They, are like -alt people -with one idea; they think there is nothing else in the world that is of the least importance. But there are other questions. We have a terribly overcrowded Parliamentary programme, and it is vory' largely due to tho very worthy desire of our friends to see • everything done in the present session of Parliament —as though" wo were going soon to be out | of office. ■ We havo .slum clearance,!

the raising of the school age, and one or two other matters', and the programme is terribly crowded. .. '■'.'" "I have thought weeks and months about/this, but I realised that it could not be done with any possibility that we could get our ,'proposals carried into law this year. ■ ■ ' . . '! "The right honourable member for Carnarvon Boroughs said that land valuation 'had- already been done, but the valuation that he made is really of no use at all. His proposals were something quite different from what T should have made, and they are practienlly of no use in this case;

Therefore, a new valuation will be needed, but I will say this: That if there are difficulties in the way, if there is hostility in the way, to prevent, us getting the valuation Bill through this session, then I shall make every possible effort, even if it means 'in the next Budget the sacrifice of all those matters of detail and administration and the like which form so large a part in every Finance Bill, to carry this valuation by the insertion of an impost upon land values in the next Budget. But I hope that will not be necessary. We shajl introduce the Valuation Bill forthwith, and wo shall make every effort to have it passed into law this session.