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Comment by benbojangles | Hacker News Reader

I agree. Also, High streets don't have to 'die' due to excessive rent either, the government could hike taxes on vacant stores 1000% then make possession orders on unpaid premises after 18 months. Then the gov can nationalise shop rents according to reasonable incomes.

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I'd advocate for scrapping council tax and business rates, replacing them with a land value tax payable by the freeholder rather than occupant.

I just don't see the current Tory party touching it with a barge pole.

How does that tax not just passed onto the occupant? When I was renting I was basically paying all my landlords costs for the property + profit on top. If there’s not enough units available or if the landlord class acts as a cartel in pricing then every cost is going to the occupant

The tax incidence depends on the elasticities of demand and supply. Since the supply of land is, for practical purposes, perfectly inelastic, land value tax cannot be effectively passed onto the tenant.

See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax#Tax_incidence

Only issue is that UK politics are dominated by rich landowners...

I'd love for council tax to be scrapped, but I'd prefer it to be replaced by a risen in income tax, with money dished out by Central government to local councils.

> hike taxes on vacant stores 1000%

That's how you get high streets lined with charity shops. Not that I have anything against charity shops, but is that really what you want to see?

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