Labour land reforms: our Head of Housing & Land responds

Head of Housing & Land at the New Economics Foundation, Joe Beswick, responded to today’s Labour Party proposals for reform of land policy:

“It’s great to see politicians starting to take the issue of land seriously. NEF have long made the argument that land is essential to properly understanding our current broken economy, but is largely ignored or sidelined by mainstream economists. Land and land ownership is one of the drivers of so many of the crises that we face today – the housing crisis, the inequality crisis, and the climate emergency – and developing a fairer system for distributing and using land must be central to a new, sustainable economy. This report recommends a number of policies that NEF have been working on – including, ending the fire sale of public land, securing more affordable land for housing, and increasing transparency of land ownership. If political parties are serious about changing the rules so that the economy work for everyone, then they must put land reform at the heart of that.”