Announcing the

United Nations Habitat Agency

Global Land Tool Network

Land Value Taxation Project

By Alanna Hartzok, IU’s UN-NGO Main Representative in New York,

Published November 2006.

I am pleased to inform the worldwide Georgist movement that the Land Value Tax/ Capture (LVT/C) Project agreement with the United Nations Habitat Global Land Tool Network is now formal and official!

Twelve years of persistent work of the United Nations NGO Representatives for the International Union for Land Value Taxation have proved to be well worthwhile. The door is now open for acceptance and implementation of land value tax worldwide via our now formal working relationship with UN Habitat.

The eight-page contract (attached - Click here!) begins with background information on both the UN Habitat Global Land Tool Network and land value taxation and capture policy. Here is the beautiful last paragraph of the first section:

The natural world is rightfully the common property of all persons, and therefore the LVT is not really a tax, but simply the collection of rent (a user fee) on behalf of the community. For eight thousand years worldwide, LVT has been the primary basis for producing public revenue and is easy for people to understand.  LVT is the appropriate instrument for the urgent fight against global inequity and poverty.

UN Habitat is responsible for Goal 7 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to:

Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources.

Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.

Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020.

In addition, MDG 3 on empowerment of women, which has been expanded to include women’s property rights as one of the indicators, requires the gendering of tools.

A GLTN Advisory Group of currently thirty expert Georgists have committed to work on the LVT/C project. The team of UN NGO Representatives for the International Union for Land Value Taxation will have much to contribute as well. Georgist organizations and individuals worldwide are welcome to add to the success of this project.

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Here are details of the specific development goals and LVT/C Project goals, activities, and output.

Section 2.1 Specific development goals states that:

Land value taxation and capture is the practice of creating local and/or state revenue by charging each title holder (or equivalent according to the continuum of land rights) to land a portion (%) of the value of the site but not for buildings. LVT/C can be used to produce revenue for public purposes and for fostering more efficient use of land, including natural resources.

Without land tax there is vast amount of speculation in land which is pushing the price of land sky high and making it unaffordable for the poor in cities. This is especially important for regions where political patronage is linked to land.

After describing the Access to Land section of the HABITAT II Action Agenda, which recommends land based taxes and “the adoption of innovative instruments that capture gains in land value and recover public investments” this section ends with:

Sound LVT/C policies create incentives for substantial improvement in the housing stock, provides the basis for self-financing cities, enables the benefits of the market system, and secures a fair distribution of wealth.

3.1 Specific project goals:

The LVT/C capacity building program seeks to enable implementation of the UN-HABITAT 1996 Action Agenda recommendations for land value capture and land based tax policy. The training material will be available via Internet to public officials, NGO and grassroots leaders, and others who are committed to ensuring access to land for affordable shelter for all.

The training will focus in particular on the capture of land value for public revenue and the land tools that are crucial to the successful implementation of this policy, such as land assessments, cadastral systems, and land registration. High-quality and affordable information reliable, timely, and user-friendly will be presented to help prepare governments for implementing these fiscal approaches, which, among other benefits, can create incentives for improvement in the housing stock.

Section 4 gives examples of the overall GLTN activities  within which our project is embedded, such as Expert Group Meetings, interactive conferences, knowledge management, implementation methodologies, administrative and institutional upscaling, and harmonization of global partners.

4.1 Specific project activities:

To document existing best practices and lessons learned on LVT/C.

To disseminate existing best practices and lessons learned on LVT/C.

To develop a curriculum for a short Internet based course on LVT/C.

The following components will be applicable:

1.     a)    Develop explanatory documents on LVC/T (global coverage)

b)     Develop SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis on LVC/T (financial/social/environmental with global coverage)

a)  Examples of existing LVC/T initiatives (global coverage, country specific examples)

b)  Specific SWOT on existing examples of LVC/T (global as well as country specific)

c)   Statements by key individuals/institutions on LVC/T (global coverage)

3.     a) Develop a curriculum for and the design of a short online course on LVC/T    (approximately 8h Internet time and 16h offline time)

b)  Develop an online LVC/T calculator/simulator where a council/country can enter their own data and then elaborate different LVC/T solutions seeing the results in the LVC/T calculator/simulator. Calculator ought to be available on www.gltn.net.

4.     a)  Develop brief brochure on LVC/T. (Edit/design and production by external partners, not in this contract).

The above is to be disseminated and available via the GLTN website at www.gltn.net.

The information to be captured and presented ought to give answer to the following questions:

1.      Where has LVT been implemented so far and what are the results?

2.      How does a council with limited resources assess land values?

3.      How would LVT be implemented in a small community with limited resources and what are the barriers?

4.      How is it best managed to tax existing landowners who have not been taxed in the past?

5.      Given that land tax can be imposed on poor, how is that best managed without causing market evictions? 6.

6.      What is the way forward if there is no valuation profession in place in the country?

The UN Habitat GLTN Land Value Taxation/Capture Project  will be directed and coordinated by Alanna Hartzok. The $20,000 grant will be administered by Earth Rights Institute, a US based non-profit organization co-directed by Hartzok and Anne Goeke, both UN NGO Representatives for the International Union for Land Value Taxation. Earth Rights Institute is also a member organization of the IU. For further information or if you would like to be involved with this project please contact Alanna Hartzok at [email-masked] or by phone in the US: 717-264-0957.