It’s a fascinating to read that land William the Conqueror took in 1066 to give his friends is today pretty much owned by the same families. One incident ended up with the Land Registry ‘accidentally’ releasing a huge database of information which led to it having to officially open it to all and for free. So while there has been some rebalance in the long run, not that much was achieved, and there is still a need for new land reforms.Īs many architects will have experienced, gaining information on land ownership from the Land Registry can be difficult, lengthy and costly, but Shrubsole and his colleagues are incredibly dogged and there are lots of anecdotes about their efforts to gain information fusing Freedom of Information requests and other means. From the 1920s to the 1970s there was more effective change – for example, under Attlee’s government councils were able to buy land cheaply through CPOs and a tax was introduced on the uplift in land value as result of planning approval, but both have since been abolished by subsequent governments. It’s a very stimulating read and an interesting record of about what’s been done in the past to enable more affordable housing and for people to have greater control over land. Shrubsole pushes for a modern land reform strategy to help solve the housing crisis by championing land value capture and giving more control of land to communities by promoting schemes such as Community Right to Buy as seen in Scotland. This inequity is one of the things that Guy Shrubsole looks at in Who Owns England? This is an overtly political book which deals with the big issues around land ownership, the selling off of public land, increasing land values, land banking and the destruction of our natural environment through unsustainable farming.

Apparently some 50% of England is owned by less than 1% of the population, and the worry is that many members of that 1% aren’t being as responsible as they could be. Petra Marko and I were researching land reform as we wanted to find out how just a few people have ended up owning almost all the land in the country. I stumbled across this book because of the work I’ve been doing as part of VeloCity, which is a strategic vision tackling some of the most critical issues facing the countryside today with focus on reinvigorating village communities.

With ever increasing land values, understanding who owns and controls the land is key to unlocking it for truly affordable housing, as the housing crisis is effectivelya land crisis. The housing crisis is shining a spotlight on the countryside, which means now more than ever we need to think differently about where and what kind of housing we should be building there.

Shrubsole who owns england