>What if you live in one of the leafier parts of the east end, where only 30 years ago you could buy a house on a blue-collar wage. Now your house is worth more than £1m. But you're retired and on a basic state pension. You don't want to move to a cheaper area because your friends and family live close to you and are able to support you.
Then you are making very inefficient use of an extremely scarce resource. Economically speaking, you should get out of the way and let someone more productive have that property.
Morally that might be wrong, but I think you should be able to argue for why we should adopt policies that sound morally right but have nasty economic consequences.
>I assume by 'proper' property taxes you mean 'the way the US does things'. I'm not sure that it would work in the UK with our different economics, system of government and geography.
Then you are making very inefficient use of an extremely scarce resource. Economically speaking, you should get out of the way and let someone more productive have that property.
Morally that might be wrong, but I think you should be able to argue for why we should adopt policies that sound morally right but have nasty economic consequences.
>I assume by 'proper' property taxes you mean 'the way the US does things'. I'm not sure that it would work in the UK with our different economics, system of government and geography.
Why not a simple land-value tax?