[diggers350] an assembly can stop the landscam

[Fran Ryan]

Thanks for your research.
This is why we need to get Community Land Trusts off the ground. In this 
way the land is owned (and managed) in perpetuity by local people. 
(Under current legislation) it can never be sold on the speculative 
market. By using this mechanism the cost of houses can be halved thus 
making them affordable and KEEPING THEM AFFORDABLE. And this makes it 
possible for young people to stay local, it helps our schools and local 
shops, it helps keep communities alive and sustainable.

If there is any land anywhere near you that could be developed for the 
local community then go to it! There are at least a dozen small groups, 
some with land already  trying to make this happen in England. Several 
in Wales as well and lots in Scotland where the Scottish Assembly have 
shown the way by changing the law and setting up a fund to support land 
purchase by local groups.

Here are some links;
http://www.communitylandtrust.org.uk
www.oclt.org.uk


Fran Ryan
Oxfordshire Community Land Trust






james armstrong wrote:
> THE LAND UNDERNEATH YOUR HOUSE (if you have one) COSTS YOU £62,500
> THIS IS HIDDEN WITHIN THE ASKING PRICE OF YOUR HOUSE.
>   Government guide-lines cram  20 houses to the acre. As prime farmland at 
> £3,500 per acre the site cost would work out at £175 per house .  Once the 
> price has jumped to £1,250,000 per acre (the current planning gain for the 
> landowner) each house has £62,500 worth of land under the foundations, 
> garden  & driveway. The monopoly element in your mortgage pays for this 
> windfall. This part of your mortgage repayments  costs £440.20 per month. 
> WHEN MORTGAGING YOUR HOUSE,  THE CORNER OF THE FIELD  WHICH THE FARMER 
> VALUES AT £175  AND FOR WHICH THE LANDOWNER RECEIVED £62,500, COSTS THE 
> MORTGAGE PAYER £133,125 BEFORE HE HAS PAID IT BACK 25 YRS LATER
> Here's how- You might say the first £62,500- goes to pay for the land under 
> the house. At 7.25 %APR over 25 years  for every £1 you borrow you pay back 
> over the  life of the mortgage, £2.13 in repayments and interest. ( figures 
> from a Halifax BS quotation in 2007) By then you have paid £133,125 for the 
> same land valued at   £175  as cow pasture.   There is then a potential 
> saving of £101 per week on your mortgage if you and we combine to stop the 
> windfall gains going to landowners  and enable land to be used for houses at 
> the same £ rate as for grazing cows.
> Next we have got to enable housebuyers to use this land , not landowners to 
> hoard it, nor building societies to exploit it to boost  interest incomes 
> and  setting up fees, surveyors fees, conveyancing fees and cancellation 
> fees.   For £175 the houseowner can have the life time's use of the land on 
> which his house is to be built. At this  low £175 'one off ' charge  for 
> land use  obtainable from the Land Holding Trust, the mortgage lender can 
> concentrate on advancing  money for the houses themselves.  The nation has 
> no responsibility for supporting the banks' hidden £13billion housing  land 
> monopoly mortgage  scam and housebuyers have little inclination  to be 
> further exploited. Exploitation of people by means of the  land is long  
> established in history.The House of Lords cemented this exploitation within  
> the constitution. It is therefore appropriate now to  safeguard the land 
> from future exploitation by replacing the House of Lords by the Assembly of 
> the
> People, charged with safeguarding  people from being exploited by means of 
> land ownership -especially  building land ownership-  monopoly  ---which 
> certainly has more authenticity in a democracy.
> THE MORTGAGE LENDERS  £7billion MONOPOLY TAKE
> For every 100,000 houses built at the extraordinary land price, from the  
> inflated windfall gains for purchasing  the land alone, or rewarding the 
> hoarders, mortgage lenders receive  100,000 times  £133,000.
> This is £13,300 million or something over £13billion.   If the land was sold 
> at farmland prices this income would disappear since every sane housebuyer 
> would pay a 'one off '  payment of £175.to use  the land underneath his 
> house.  For the  100,000 houses at the alternative  lower  land value the 
> comparison would be £17,500,000 - something over £17million (not £billion) - 
>   approximately 1,000 times cheaper than at present. A net and unnecessary  
> addition of £7 billion  goes  to the lenders  in addition to the landowners' 
> already unnecessary windfall of £6 billion for the land for each  100,000 
> houses. By the time the builders have added their profit margin (usually 
> inflated by their monopoly of supply ) and their positioning of the new 
> houses to the more affluent end of the market -result? a housing crisis  on 
> three levels.  Unquantifiable personal  distress. Unacceptable social  
> divisiveness between haves and have nots..  Obscene wealth accumulation in 
> the City (explaining the  £19 billion  Christmas bonuses) An example from 
> personal experience: A house I  'self-built' in north London in 1985 for 
> £55,000 and subsequently sold,  is now on the market for £550,000. This 
> quantification  of the crisis outweighs even  the hysterical press hype. 
> These scams explain the shortage of houses supplied. Freeing people's lives 
> from this burden of mortgage repayments would release domestic 
> entrepeneurial  energy now stifled by the City. The Landowners' windfall and 
> the mortgage lenders income from the inflated site cost depends on 
> maintaining monopoly  conditions within the market for new houses.  Barker 
> confirms it exists- split between only seven giant corporate builders. They 
> depend on rising prices, short supply and (which the report fails to note) 
> restricting entry of potential self- builders.   Given the restrictive 
> nature of the  planning laws- and the restrictive distribution of the 
> ownership of  land in Britain "Is there doubt about the cause of the 
> crisis?" Landowners, mortgage lenders, and national builders  benefit from 
> the restricted supply of building land.  The Bank of England MPC guides and  
> control the economy. They also  benefit from the rise in house prices.- even 
> 10% annual inflation of the housing pound does not affect the sterling 
> exchange rate which in the past has caused governments to fall.END  ' 
> Housing articles,  The land costs £62,500' 832 words
>
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