It’s time This is a call out to groups and individuals all
over the country who think that the time has come for us to have more control
of our land. In order to draw attention to this injustice, we invite you to
organise an event in your area between the 14th and 22nd of April. This could
be a public meeting or protest with leafleting or maybe a banner drop,
occupation or mass trespass. for change Join us and make the call for land
justice echo around the country. get in touch via: landjusticeuk@gmail.com www.landjustice.uk
On Saturday April 14th, the Land Justice Network will be holding a walking tour
of two of the wealthiest boroughs in London, yet where many still live in
poverty: Westminster, owned largely by the Duke of Westminster, and Kensington
and Chelsea, where the Earl of Cadogan owns 93 acres. Here we can see the
massive area that has been taken from the people centuries ago, and now home to
some of the richest landowners, investors and property speculators. By accident
of birth these privileged individuals inherit a life of luxury, and by use of
trusts they avoid the inheritance taxes everyone else is required to pay, so
enabling the grossly unequal distribution of land to continue. Is it right that
the rich can avoid paying their taxes and that their land and wealth continues
to grow at the expense of the rest of society? In the countryside, large
landowners dominate agriculture, squeezing out small farmers and collective
farming. Agriculture workers are poorly paid and struggle to find housing that
they can afford. Huge tracts of land are turned over to grouse moors to provide
the rich with space for their destructive pasttimes. Our freedom to walk and
enjoy nature is largely restricted to a limited network of ‘rights of way’. In
the cities, land is also unequally distributed, owned by a combination of
traditional aristocrats and their modern-day equivalent: offshore companies and
institutional investors. Increasingly homes are now owned by buy-to-let
landlords rather than by individual home owners or social landlords. All of
this forces up the cost of living for those who have to rent. Tenants have
little security with standard tenancies running for just 6 months. There are no
controls on rent, so now on average people pay a quarter of their wages to
their landlord, while in London its roughly half their salary. Even those who
manage to buy their own home rarely own it outright until late in life. Most
people are stuck paying a big chunk of their salary on their mortgage every
month, with the worry that if they lose their job they could lose their home
too. In the last 6 years homelessness has dramatically increased. It is obscene
that in this day and age so many people do not have a secure home. This could
be achieved if the £9.3 billion a year paid in Housing Benefit to wealthy
landlords was instead used to build social housing in all communities. Urban
areas also need well managed parks, community gardens and allotments, so that
everyone has access to nature and the opportunity to grow food. But increasingly
these spaces are being sold off or rented out to private companies for events -
so damaging the parks and shutting out local residents for lengthy periods of
time.
Land ownership in Britain is one of the most unequal in the world: 0.06%
of the population - 36,000 people - own 50% of the rural land of England &
Wales. Source: Country Land & Business Association (CLA) Land inequality is
both a rural and urban issue. More than a third of our land is still owned by
the aristocracy, whose ancestors seized it during the Norman Conquest. By
fencing off land and using violence to exclude people, landowners (the lords)
have deprived the rest of us of what should be a shared resource. The vast
majority of us, the commoners, own little or nothing. Even most of the land
that was once declared common land (for local use) has been taken away from us.
Land saved for community use, such as for hospitals, fire stations, school
playing fields, is increasingly being sold off and asset stripped by private
developers. Land issues lie at the heart of so much inequality and
environmental degradation in society today. Landowners are able to control and
exploit our natural resources and force the rest of us to be beholden to them
for food, shelter and other needs. Despite their huge wealth, our taxes are
used to pay landowner
In the countryside, large landowners
dominate agriculture, squeezing
out small farmers and collective
farming. Agriculture workers are
poorly paid and struggle to find
housing that they can afford. Huge
tracts of land are turned over to
grouse moors to provide the rich
with space for their destructive
pasttimes. Our freedom to walk and
enjoy nature is largely restricted to
a limited network of ‘rights of way’.
In the cities, land is also unequally
distributed, owned by a combination
of traditional aristocrats and their
modern-day equivalent: offshore
companies and institutional
investors. Increasingly homes are
now owned by buy-to-let landlords
rather than by individual home
owners or social landlords. All of
this forces up the cost of living for
those who have to rent. Tenants
have little security with standard
tenancies running for just 6 months.
There are no controls on rent,
so now on average people pay
a quarter of their wages to their
landlord, while in London its roughly
half their salary. Even those who
manage to buy their own home
rarely own it outright until late in
life. Most people are stuck paying
a big chunk of their salary on their
mortgage every month, with the
worry that if they lose their job
they could lose their home too.
In the last 6 years homelessness
has dramatically increased. It
is obscene that in this day and
age so many people do not have
a secure home. This could be
achieved if the £9.3 billion a
year paid in Housing Benefit to
wealthy landlords was instead
used to build social housing in all
communities.
Urban areas also need well
managed parks, community
gardens and allotments, so that
everyone has access to nature
and the opportunity to grow food.
But increasingly these spaces are
being sold off or rented out to
private companies for events - so
damaging the parks and shutting
out local residents for lengthy
periods of time.
Join us and make the call for land justice echo around the
country. get in touch via: landjusticeuk@gmail.com www.landjustice.uk
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