LandValueScape — Mapping Enterprise: Location Matters Mapping Enterprise: Location Matters

Spatial Fiscal Policy Lab · Computer-Assisted Mass Appraisal · Geomatics

The Living Landvaluescape Atlas & Policy Lab

Every train line, school, park, and business alters the value of land around it. In his pioneering doctoral research at Kingston University and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Dr Tony Vickers demonstrated how Computer-Assisted Mass Appraisal (CAMA) and modern GIS can map unearned location rent — enabling a fair, revenue-neutral shift away from taxes on jobs, enterprise, and homes.

Launch Tax Effect Demonstrator (TED) Explore 4 British Case Studies Read 2009 Doctoral Thesis

Illustrated Policy Simulator (PhD Thesis Chapter 5)

Tax Effect Demonstrator (TED): Revenue-Neutral Fiscal Shift

Use the slider below to simulate shifting local government finance from conventional property taxes (Council Tax on homes and Business Rates on commerce) onto Annual Land Value Tax (site value V only, buildings exempt):

Fiscal Shift: 0% Conventional: 100% | Land Value Tax: 0%
0% (Current System: Council Tax & Rates) 25% Pilot BID 50% Balanced Shift 75% Primary LVT 100% Pure Site Value Capture

Drag the slider to see how each of the four places below changes.

Residential Archetype A

Modest Terrace Home

— No change (£0)
Baseline Council Tax: £1,420
Simulated Annual Tax: £1,420
Illustration: modest terrace home23

Compact high-efficiency town terrace with modest site footprint in Newbury / Reading.

Commercial Archetype B

Renovated High St Shop

— No change (£0)
Baseline Uniform Rates: £4,800
Simulated Annual Tax: £4,800
Illustration: renovated high street shopHIGH ST. PROVISIONSSALEOPENFresh bread

Active retailer making £80,000 interior & green energy improvements in a town centre.

Residential Archetype C

Suburban Family Semi

— No change (£0)
Baseline Council Tax: £2,180
Simulated Annual Tax: £2,180
Illustration: suburban family semi

Typical 3-bedroom semi-detached with garden in southern Oxfordshire.

Vacant Land Archetype D

Brownfield Plot (1 ha.)

— No change (£0)
Baseline Holding Cost: £450
Simulated Annual Tax: £450
Illustration: brownfield plot near the stationWORKSHOPSSITE ACQUIREDFUTURE DEVELOPMENT

Vacant development land near the station, currently held idle.

Illustrations are indicative. Each scene changes only as far as its own simulated bill changes. At every setting the council raises the same total; the shift moves the charge off buildings and improvements and onto the value of the land itself.

British Empirical Evidence

The Living Atlas: 4 British Pilot Case Studies

Landvaluescape 3D Value Surface (X, Y, V) Transit Hub / Rail Core
  • Didcot / Abingdon Transport Hub Value Cone
  • Didcot
  • Abingdon
  • Farmland and green belt
  • 28,000 parcels valued by GIS (2004)
  • Farmland: almost no site rent
  • High street shops
  • Vacant car park
  • Improved shops: tax falls by over 50% under LVT
  • Idle car park: LVT adds an incentive to develop
  • Southwark
  • Bermondsey
  • Canary Wharf
  • River Thames
  • Line cost £3.5bn of public money
  • £13bn uplift within 1,000 yards of stations
  • Capturing 27% would have paid for the line
  • BID boundary
  • River Mersey
  • Revenue funds cleaner streets and transit
  • Lincoln Institute fellowship, 2003–04

Oxfordshire & Vale of White Horse (County Council Study, 2004–2005)

Dr Vickers evaluated 28,000 parcels across southern Oxfordshire using GIS property records. Modeling separate unimproved site values showed agricultural and green-belt land held minimal site rent, while urban transport corridors in Didcot and Abingdon absorbed enormous publicly created location surpluses.

“County studies proved mass spatial appraisal was technically viable in Britain with existing Land Registry polygons and VOA rating data.”

Doctoral Thesis & Flagship Publications

Browse full 58-document repository →