Henry George and a land value tax in Scotland

From Farmers Weekly, a British magazine:

A land value tax could be introduced in Scotland as part of the country’s ongoing reform journey.

The proposals are included in the Land and property taxation in Scotland: Initial scoping of options for reform report, written by data analyst Alma Economics for the Scottish Land Commission.

I found this by chance, while looking for the latest on Henry George’s followers, on the Georgism discussion board on Reddit. As usual, the devil is in the detail:

NFU [National Farmers’ Union] Scotland president Andrew McCornick said the report’s focus on land ownership rather than land use was worrying.

In my previous posts touching on Henry George, I quoted Michael Kinsley, Albert Jay Nock and John Dewey. It’s interesting to see George’s ideas, distorted as a rule but still recognizable, popping up here and there from time to time and seemingly growing in appeal. Even the Economist argued in 2018 that George’s land value tax might be a timely idea.

Still I doubt that his primary purpose was taxing farmers whose land had happened to gain in market value, even for reasons other than their improvement efforts.

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