Reaching the man in the street

[John]

> most enlightening email John, on this crucial issue
> of how to reach the man in the street.

Tony,

Thanks.  I just felt that land is probably the most crucial issue that
effects us all, with most people not realising it.  People are hocked up to
their eyeballs most of their lives to put a small very expensive,
underinsulated roof over their heads.  Most have no idea that most of their
house price, or house value, is the value of the land the bricks are on.
The restriction on using land affects us all, directly, with most not
realising it.  It is not just a country issue, it is far from that.

This artificial shortage of land available for building drives up land
prices, and rents, to the good of large land owners.

I am for total freedom of land usage.  People should be living amongst the
environment not herded into urban sectors and then attempt to find a green
piece of land to see or walk on at the weekend, travelling miles to get to
it.

With planning it is a case of building in harmony and aesthetically pleasing
to the environment.  Countryside Alliance propaganda says putting a house on
a green field is wrong.  And they suck it in and blow it out agreeing as
many live in a urban hell.

The average 4 bed 2 bathroom selbuilt house in the Uk cost about 100-110K to
build, yet the land may cost twice that to put it on, if you are lucky
enough to find land available for building of course.

If that 200Ks worth of land was available for 50K people could build bigger
and better equipped houses enhancing their lifestyles and promoting the
construction and associated manufacturing industries.  Instead rich
landowners (none productive rent collectors mainly) get the lions share of
money.

The selfbuild market in the UK is about 10% of all houses built.  Way below
Ireland (~70%), Germany, France (~40%), USA (~30%), Austria (~70%).  This
market is ripe for expansion to the good of all.  They need cheap land to
build on, instead we subsidise farmers to keep it idle.

> Do you know how much land we have
> per person in the UK?

Off hand no. The DOE if probably the place or that government stats web
site.  Stats of people per acre I regard as BS stats, they are pretty
meaningless to this point.  Only 10% of the country being urbanised, with
58-60 million in that 10% tells a lot.  For e.g, the new 45 floor arpartment
block at Paddington in London will have thousands of people per acre.

Simon Fairlie's book goes into many useful stats - the problem is that they
are spread all over the book, so difficult to extract.  No stats section.

Sorry to go on.  Keep up the good work.  I hope I have helped, no matter how
small.

Regards

John

> Tony
>
> At 20:11 13/2/01 +0000, you wrote:
> >this just got sent in.  Thought provoking >>>
> >
> >>From: "John" <john.burns-curtis at bigfoot.com>
> >>To: <office at tlio.demon.co.uk>
> >>Cc: <chapter7 at tlio.demon.co.uk>
> >>Subject: The TLIO Campaign
> >>Date: Thu, 8 Feb 2001 13:31:51 -0000
> >>
> >>Hi,
> >>
> >>I like your aims and admire you people.  The web site is highly
> informative
> >>too.
> >>
> >>The point what hit me is that how are you going to make the
> average person
> >>in the UK aware of the land issue and how it indirectly affects him/her.
> >>Your web site, or campaign, doesn't appear to do that effectively.
> >>
> >>If it is made abundantly clear to Mr Average that:
> >>
> >>1)  His house is one of the smallest in the western world
> >>2)  His house is one of the most expensive in the western world
> >>3)  The reason of the above is high land prices and that most
> of the value
> >>of his house is the land value not the bricks.
> >>4)  The reason why the land is expensive is because we are not
> allowed to
> >>build on it.
> >>5)  There is by far enough land for all to go around (contrary to
> >>Countryside Alliance propaganda).  Only 10 % of the land is urbanised.
> >>6)  Restricted land use mean high rents for domestic and
> industry and higher
> >>product costs making the UK uncompetitive.
> >>
> >>Ramming that home to Mr Urban average will make him alert to the most
> >>important matter relating to the UK.
> >>
> >>Here are some details issued by the House Builders Federation.
> So far no
> >>one has castigated them, so I assume they are correct.
> >>
> >>1) The proportion of Britain's population living in urban areas
> is 90% - the
> >>second highest in Europe
> >>
> >>2) 88% of England is not developed
> >>
> >>3) About two thirds of all new housing is built within existing
> urban areas,
> >>which occupies 10.6% of the total land area of England. (13 million
> >>hectares)
> >>
> >>4) The dwellings needed to meet household growth will expand
> the urban area
> >>of England to just 11.9% by 2016
> >>
> >>5) Over one third of the land area of England is already protected as
> >>National Parks (7.6%), Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty
> (14.2%) or Green
> >>Belt (12.6%)
> >>
> >>6) The area of Green Belt has doubled in England since 1980 - an average
> >>increase of over 300 acres a day (Nearly 21 million acres absorbed in
> >>total).
> >>
> >>7) For every acre of land taken for housing since 1980, 7.5
> acres has been
> >>added to the Green Belt.
> >>
> >>8) Home ownership in the UK at 68% is lower than Spain,
> Finland, Ireland,
> >>Greece, Australia and New Zealand and very close to rates in
> Italy, Portugal
> >>and Luxembourg.
> >>
> >>Sobering figures for reflection.  Yet the average person is led
> to believe
> >>we are running out of green land.  The figures indicate that there is
> >>"green-belt sprawl", not "urban sprawl" or "concreting over the
> >>countryside".
> >>
> >>It is near impossible for selfbuilders to get land in the UK.
> Many give up,
> >>one of the reasons why the important selfbuild market is low in the UK.
> >>Selfbuilders build high quality individual homes of high
> specification with
> >>a knock on effect of creating more construction jobs.
> >>
> >>Freeing up the land by relaxing the 1947 Town & Country
> Planning act will
> >>make matters far beneficial to all.  We have lots of land in
> the UK, as the
> >>above figures indicate, they just won't lets us on it.  The
> country people
> >>have one hell of a good propaganda machine going, that is for sure.
> >>
> >>Back to main point.  I think you should emphasis how the land
> issue affects
> >>the everyday man, and how he is being ripped off.  He/she is
> not aware of
> >>this.  Most perceive your campaign is a displaced country
> person issue.  It
> >>is not, but that is the perception.  All angles must be stressed.
> >>
> >>Keep up the good work.
> >>
> >>John Burns
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>---
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> >
> >
> >The Land Is Ours
> >... A Landrights Movement for All
> >
> >The Land Is Ours campaigns peacefully for access to the land,
> its resources
> >and the decision making processes affecting them, for everyone -
> >irrespecitive of race, age, or gender.
> >
> >Postal address :
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