Letter in the Financial Times
Jun. 26th, 2017 10:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ndrosenThe Financial Times printed a letter of mine today, and here it is:
Encourage the more efficient use of land
Sir, Diane Coyle writes that the market is not going to fix the housing problem, which is true in a sense, but states that private developers will not want to increase housing supply enough to bring prices down ("Grenfell Tower tragedy offers a chance to fix housing policy", June 22). Private developers may not want that result, but each developer stands to profit by increasing the housing supply a bit, and the total effect should be a large increase in that supply.
The real market failure is that private developers cannot increase the supply of land. It would be possible, however, to reconsider land use regulations, and to tax land more while cutting taxes on buildings, wages, and value added. This would encourage efficient use of land, while rendering land speculation unprofitable, and thus reducing land prices.
Nicholas D Rosen
Arlington, VA, US
Encourage the more efficient use of land
Sir, Diane Coyle writes that the market is not going to fix the housing problem, which is true in a sense, but states that private developers will not want to increase housing supply enough to bring prices down ("Grenfell Tower tragedy offers a chance to fix housing policy", June 22). Private developers may not want that result, but each developer stands to profit by increasing the housing supply a bit, and the total effect should be a large increase in that supply.
The real market failure is that private developers cannot increase the supply of land. It would be possible, however, to reconsider land use regulations, and to tax land more while cutting taxes on buildings, wages, and value added. This would encourage efficient use of land, while rendering land speculation unprofitable, and thus reducing land prices.
Nicholas D Rosen
Arlington, VA, US
