The way forward has been endorsed by the consensus of 165 nation states as stated in the UN Habitat II Action Agenda from the 1996 conference in Istanbul. Every government must show a commitment to promoting the provision of an adequate supply of land in the context of sustainable land-use policies. Land value taxation policies shift taxes off of labor and productive capital and onto land and resources, thus collecting ground rent for the benefit of all rather than the profit of a few. Freeing labor from taxation assures maximum purchasing capacity. Collecting ground rent through land value recapture and land value taxation provides an equitable and sufficient source of public funds to finance infrastructure for water and sewage systems, transportation, education and other community services.
Land also maintains affordability when it is freed from speculation and private profiteering.
While we are preparing to implement city and country wide land value taxation, we can model this approach through Community Land Trust leases which secure title and tenure to the poor and landless while eliminating the problem of the commodification of land. A CLT issued land lease clearly demarcates land boundaries and which individuals or groups are granted secure tenure and use rights to a particular parcel of land. Under a CLT lease, land maintains affordability because there is no capacity for land speculation or profiteering. The Trust land cannot be sold so it does not have a purchase value for land users but does have a fair rental value, which in remote rural areas would be extremely low. With no selling price, only a fair lease fee, there is no need to borrow mortgage money for land purchase.