'New Domesday' article removed from Daily Mail website

[Gerrard Winstanley]

This article is from over a year ago but I just discovered the actual
cutting in my office and scanned it in.
Most likely removed after legal threats.
This initiative appears to have been successfully killed off, possibly
by the rich and powerful landowners, and all traces removed from the web.

This sort of register would be essential for the bringing in of any
'land tax' as the Georgists and others would like to see. My view is
that the Earth is a free gift to manking, a 'common treasury for all'
and that tax should only be charged on luxuries - never on necessities
- in any truly just society. Such taxes on necessities penalise the
poor (such as council tax as against rates) and lead to the parasitism
we see with todays oil companies, utilities, supermarkets etc.



Land wars loom over Domesday Book Mk II
By Jane Merrick 
Daily Mail Political Correspondent
09 April 2007 but removed from the Mail internet site
DETAILS of who owns every single acre of land in England and Wales are
to be publicly recorded in a 21st century Domesday Book.
The Queen, the Prince of Wales and some of England's oldest
aristocratic families will be asked to give information on their
estates to the land Registry. 
Major landowners including the National Trust, the Church of England,
the Forestry Commission and the Ministry of Defence will also be
publicly registered.
The information available to the public will include not only who owns
land, but details of mortgages and other financial assets or burdens.
It is the largest survey since William the Conqueror commissioned the
Domesday Book nearly a thousand years ago.
But the move could trigger lengthy legal battles over disputed
ownership of land.
It will also infuriate private individuals who do not want to be on
the register.
Some 40 per cent of land in England and Wales, mainly vast swathes of
countryside, is currently unregistered.
Details have gone unrecorded because estates have stayed in the same
families for centuries.
The land Registry is asking owners to provide the information
voluntarily - but it could become compulsory under new laws if they do
not co-operate.
It will cost an estate hundreds of pounds to register, but
unregistered landowners are being offered discounts of up to 25 per
cent to encourage them.
Peter Collis, chief land registrar of England and Wales, said it was
thought up to four million land titles remain unregistered.
He said: 'Once the land is registered, it means the title is
guaranteed and the land is legally protected. Having all land
registered will bring a comprehensive database to the property market
that benefits everyone.'
The Dukes of Norfolk and Bedford, who between them own 70,000 acres in
the Home Counties, are among landowners who are said to be
co-operating with the plans.
The Prince of Wales owns nearly 140,000 acres in South-west of England
through the Duchy of Cornwall.
The Duchy has been voluntarily registering the land, worth around
£561million, since 2003. A spokesman declined to say how much had been
registered so far. [ie refused to co-operate - ed.]