BBC – Ottawa Citizen, February 18, 2012 by Frank de Jong, President, Earthsharing Canada Toronto Community’s fair share Re: Group decries land value plan, Feb. 12. I applaud Ottawa city council’s plan to capture some of the land value rise resulting from re-zoning and using it to improve community facilities. The proposed Section 37 guidelines will return to the community some of the wealth that results from new development or re-development. Quality new developments or warranted new infrastructure causes local land values to rise. Normally this “community-generated” wealth accrues to local land owners, but Section 37 will rightfully return some of it to the community. Collecting “unearned” land value rise (which economists call economic rent) is not “yet another form” of taxation – it is returning to the community what the community generated in the first place.

A Land Value Tax for Wales? Labour AM Mark Drakeford led a short debate on LVT in the Welsh Assembly. http://tinyurl.com/7xg6ml4 (video) And there’s much more out of the UK, sent in by readers and collated from various Georgists lists and the LVT FaceBook group. Macmillan Lecture 2012: Nick Boles sets out ‘national mission’ for improving Britain’s competitiveness: http://tinyurl.com/72qjx5h Progressive Conservatives should support a Land Value Tax http://tinyurl.com/6mgqymv Practical Politics No.193 – December 2011 http://tinyurl.com/7q6gksl Labour Can Enhance Economic Credibility With an Alternative Budget http://tinyurl.com/6rk62ar OECD to Northern Europe: Raise Your Property Taxes! http://tinyurl.com/7aajjo9 Article by Samuel Brittan in the FT. Tax England’s green and pleasant land www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/1e98b4da-5d56-11e1-869d-00144feabdc0.html Time to talk about land taxes http://tinyurl.com/7pza7xv There’s been so much good press out of the UK lately that it’s getting harder and harder to resist hoping for fundamental reform there real soon!