BRITISH LAND POLICY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 64, 12 September 1942, Page 8

BRITISH LAND POLICY

RECONSTRUCTION AID

RUGBY, September 10

The final report of the Expert Committee on Compensation and Betterment (Increase of Land Values) in respect of the public control of the use of land is published today. The committee was appointed in January, 1941, to advise what steps could be taken now or before the end of the war to prevent the work of reconstruction being prejudiced.

The report assumes that national planning is intended to be a permanent feature of the administration with the aim of securing economic security and efficiency for the community. It recognises that this involves the subordination to the public good of the personal interests and wishes of land owners.

Unreserved acceptance of this conception of planning is regarded as vital to successful reconstruction for every aspect of national activity. The committee rejects proposals for the pooling of land ownership and nationalising the land. It recommends the immediate vesting in the State of rights of development in all land lying outside built-up areas on the payment of fair compensation. If within the towns land is required for planning it should be bought outright.

There should be power foi; the compulsory acquisition of owners' interest in land required for public or private development. The planning authority should have the power to cut through the tangle of separate ownerships and boundaries and make whole areas immediately available for comprehensive replanning as a unit.