Title: Affordable housing provision through implicit land taxation
Abstract: The key issue in this paper is the appropriateness and equity of land-use planning mechanisms, and any associated cross-subsidization, as a means of enhancing the supply of affordable housing. The paper will examine the principles of ‘affordable housing through planning’ in England and it will comment on ‘inclusionary zoning’ as a means to promote affordable housing in the USA. The ways in which the planning system is used in England to support the delivery of affordable housing in developments that combine ‘market housing’ and ‘affordable housing’ will be explained. The English system will be compared with the use of inclusionary zoning to support affordable housing in the USA. The paper will consider the merits and demerits according to principles of equity and redistributive justice of using planning powers to support housing supply for low-income groups. It will examine whether the planning processes in each country result in the implicit taxation of land and whether any land taxation that does occur is ‘economic rent’ and thus a surplus that can be redistributed without any adverse effects on market supply. The role of property right conventions, legislation and regulations in facilitating and constraining processes in each case will be considered. The roles of negotiation and the relative skills and bargaining strengths of developers and planning authorities in influencing the outcomes, including who pays any implicit tax that is imposed, will be debated. The paper will explore the betterment taxation and value capture aspects of the processes in each country. In this context the relative merits of alternative means of achieving these taxation objectives will be examined. The arguments will be informed by research on the efficiency and viability of affordable housing through planning in England. This research also encompasses a consideration of current proposals for the
Publication Year: 2004
Publication Date: 2004-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 1
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