Land Value Tax Bill (HL Bill 22)

1 Secretary of State to report to Parliament on introducing a levy on land value

(1) The Secretary of State shall commission, facilitate and encourage the
investigations, collaborations and research needed to provide Parliament with
a report on how a scheme of local taxation, based on land values, could serve
5as a replacement for Council Tax and the national non-domestic rates in
England.

(2) The research shall include the arrangements for the efficient administration
and effective implementation of such schemes of land value taxation in
England.

(3) 10The Secretary of State must cause the research to begin within 3 months of the
passing of this Act and report to each House of Parliament within 12 months
of the completion of the research on the results of the programme of research
and his assessment of them.

(4) The Secretary of State may make interim reports to Parliament on what
15research, collaborations and investigations are needed to supply Parliament
with all of the information needed to evaluate the proposals, setting out a
timescale for the completion of the investigations, as well as the collaborative
work and research that remains outstanding at the time of the report.

(5) The final Report shall include an assessment of the relative advantages and
20disadvantages of continuing with the current system of Council Tax and the
non-domestic rates, and replacing both these forms of taxation with a scheme
of land value tax that is able to generate equivalent tax revenues in order to

contribute to the costs of providing and administering local services supplied
by locally elected authorities in England.

2 Information required and directions as to the research to be undertaken

(1) The Secretary of State shall encourage and facilitate cooperation and
5collaboration between bodies in order to ensure that existing knowledge,
databases and systems for exchanging information which form part of the
geographical information system (GIS) utilised by local and central
government in England, can be used to provide information needed for the
final Report.

(2) 10The bodies mentioned in subsection (1) shall include—

(a) The Land Registry;

(b) The Valuation Office;

(c) The Royal Mail;

(d) The Ordnance Survey (OS);

(e) 15The National Land Information Service (NLIS); and

(f) The Local Government Information House Limited.

(3) The Secretary of State shall consider how to promote cooperation between
departments in central government to facilitate the research for the final report.

(4) The final report under section 1 shall include proposals for land value tax
20administration pilots to enable the Government and local authorities to trial
and evaluate the processes of matching and mapping address and valuation
data from disparate data sets so as to assess the practicability of acquiring and
utilising geographical and valuation information within a scheme of local
taxation based on land values.

3 25Transitional arrangements, appeals and matters for evaluation

The final report shall include an assessment of the transitional and other
arrangements that will be needed to support the introduction of a scheme of
local land value taxation, including—

(a) the additional mechanisms and infrastructure and an estimate of the
30resources needed to value land separately from buildings on an annual
basis for land that is—

(i) non-residential;

(ii) residential;

(b) whether a system of LVT would require changes to the methods of
35registering land that is—

(i) non-residential;

(ii) residential;

(c) local autonomy and responsibilities for determining rates and levels of
local taxation;

(d) 40transitional arrangements for replacement of—

(i) national non-domestic rates;

(ii) Council Tax;

(e) development and application of Information and Communications
Technologies (ICTs) required for a system of LVT to replace—

(i) 45national non-domestic rates;

(ii) Council Tax;

(f) arrangements for resolving disputes over the valuation of plots and
managing appeals efficiently and expeditiously for a system of LVT to
replace—

(i) national non-domestic rates;

(ii) 5Council Tax;

(g) the categories of properties and businesses that would be liable to
reductions or increases in levels of local taxation payable and what the
magnitude of such increases or decreases would be for a system of LVT
to replace—

(i) 10national non-domestic rates;

(ii) Council Tax;

(h) models of supply and demand in residential and non-residential
property markets to estimate the impact of LVT on—

(i) derelict property sites;

(ii) 15speculative land purchase;

(iii) wider property development and land use;

(iv) property prices;

(v) economic productivity; and

(vi) the wider economy;

(i) 20A review of international experience of LVT.

4 Interpretation

In this Act—

• “geographical information system (GIS)” means a system for capturing,
  storing, manipulating, analysing and displaying information about the
  25relationship between particular geographical locations, activities
  undertaken at those locations, and property prices including land
  values;

• “land value tax” and “LVT” means an annual tax levied on the
  unimproved value of plots of land.

5 30Extent, commencement and short title

(1) This Act extends to England only.

(2) This Act comes into force on the day on which it is passed.

(3) This Act may be cited as the Land Value Tax Act 2014.