VIRTUALLY every day there is another announcement of rising consumer costs, increased taxes and higher interest rates, coupled with the unravelling effects of Brexit and the challenge of climate change. All these issues sap energy from a weary population struggling to emerge from the pandemic.
Then to add to the gloom we are told that our National Insurance contributions do not entitle us to a state pension in an independent Scotland.
Never has an urgent, generous response from government been more required yet the UK establishment throws the crumbs of a loan to defer part payment of energy bills to us, while the Scottish Government seeks to mitigate the worst excesses of Westminster’s attack on all of us by using the limited powers at its disposal.
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Matters are now becoming so urgent that Michael Matheson, our Cabinet Secretary for Energy, fears for the lives of some of us.
The time is nigh when the Scottish Government’s reasons for its limited actions will be looked on as excuses by the Scottish people.
I’ve always subscribed to the view that she who controls the money controls the outcome of the referendum.
It’s time for our First Minister to be bold and control the money.
One can accept that the current devolution settlement constrains the type of taxation the Scottish Parliament can introduce, but the self-same settlement does not constrain the amount of public funding it can raise.
Virtually every challenge or issue which confronts us in Scotland – be it economic, social, cultural, educational, local, health-giving and international – can be sourced from our land and its stewardship.
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Without our land reform we are bit players in all activities, whereas if we grasp land reform and acknowledge its fundamental ability to raise so much more public funding under our government’s sole control, we can transform all our lives now and drive that unbridgeable wedge between us and Westminster which will hasten independence.
Every report and utterance by commissions, think tanks and government ministers on land reform and its complexities are now just excuses to delay.
In conversation with one Scottish Government minister he suggested that a new national land tax was outwith Holyrood’s powers. I don’t know who sold him that line but I urge him and others to read and digest the words of section 80I of the Scotland Act. No such restriction exists.
Our people need money, now like a Universal Citizens Income of £200 per week for every child and adult. The Scottish Government can deliver it now through a model of Annual Ground Rent which doesn’t need a protracted consultative and legislative process to happen. It doesn’t need any property or land valued. It’s called Annual Ground Floor and Roof Rent (AGFRR). It’s based on the space you own.
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The Land Register with its cadastral plan, the General Register of Sasines and Revenue Scotland all exist, work closely together, and are the essential elements for AGFRR.
The one missing link is the registration of land and property owners to pay AGFRR, and that only involves the addition to Revenue Scotland’s website of a section where private and public-sector land owners register their property and land. Failure to register entitles the Scottish Government to repossess the unregistered land/property. Payment can’t be avoided, wherever or whoever the owner is.
The legislation will be simple. It empowers the Scottish Government to set land types using existing designations and charge a rate per square metre on the space owned and abolishes all existing Scottish taxes, commercial rates and council tax and sets a zero rate for earned income tax.
Our government will calculate its budget for the year ahead to include the UCI and divide the cost among the land types varying the land type rate to ensure ability to pay.
The Scottish Government need not even consult HMRC or obtain consent from the UK Government to introduce AGFRR or deliver the UCI.
All the preparatory work has been done. Emergency legislation could be drafted very quickly if the political will is there.
Virtually everyone will be better off. Poverty will be vanquished and we’ll all have the opportunity to live fulfilling lives with a share in our country’s economy.
Graeme McCormick
Arden
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