Policy driven early warning signs could spell disaster for the future use of farm land in Oldham which you won’t see in the Labour leaders rose tinted grow some veg, plant a tree blog. The Greater Manchester Combined Authority has hatched plans which will enable them to take a percentage of the increase in land value, or as they put it capture, attributable to the award of planning consent on pastoral land when the usage is changed to housing land. With the opportunity for huge sums of money to be made by local government the potential for a conflict of interests between preserving undeveloped land and monetary incentives when agreeing planning proposals for a change of use are inevitable.
In a devoluted Greater Manchester the GMCA also want to introduce the flexible application of stamp duty on residential properties and once again it looks like those moving to nice rural/greenfield developments will be facing additional tax to subsidise continuing housing shortages due to escalating overpopulation, underwork, underpay and reliance on supplementary benefits. “The flexible application of stamp duty on Greenfield sites in particular could secure significant revenue, and links to our proposals for matching investment capability to remediate brownfield sites and provide the infrastructure necessary to bring those sites forward for development.”