Labour and the land: From municipalization to the land commission, 1951-1971

Twentieth Century British History

Volumn 19, Issue 3, 2008, Pages 314-343

  Weiler, Peter ^a  

^a BOSTON COLLEGE   (United States)

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EID: 53349142267     PISSN: 09552359     EISSN: 14774674     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/tcbh/hwn016     Document Type: Article

References (197)

1. Michael Tichelar, 'The Labour Party and land reform in the inter-war period', Rural History, 13 (2002), 85-101. As late as 1944, the party conference concluded that 'the only satisfactory means' of securing 'good, courageous and efficient planning and the provision of housing' was by 'nationalization of the land'. i Report of the Annual C onference of the Labour Party (hereafter LPCR), 1944, 119.]
2. For the pre-1918 roots of Labour's concerns, see Michael Tichelar, 'Socialists, Labour and the land: The response of the Labour Party to the land campaign of Lloyd George before the First World War', Twentieth Century British History (hereafter TCBH), 8 (1997), 127-44.
3. For Labour's evolving position on the land question, see Tichelar, 'Labour Party and land reform'; Michael Tichelar, 'The conflict over property rights during the Second World War: The Labour Party's abandonment of land nationalization', TCBH, 14 (2003), 165-88
4. Michael Tichelar, 'Central-local tensions: The case of the Labour Party, regional government and land-use reform during the Second World War', Labour History Review, 66 (2001), 187-206
5. Kevin Manton, 'The Labour Party and fhe land question', Historical Research, 79 (2006), 247-69
6. Let us Face the Future', in Ian Dale (ed.), Labour Party General Election Manifestos 1900-1997 (London and New York, 2000), 57.
7. 'Let's Go With Labour for the New Britain', in Dale (ed.), Manifestos 115.
8. 'Britain Will Win with Labour', in Dale (ed.), Manifestos, 206.
9. Claire Griffiths has suggested that Labour's identification' with the city 'has proved enduringn insofar as land reform has been seen only as a rural policy it may also explain historians' neglect of the issue. See Labour and the Countryside: The Politics of Rural Britain 1918-1939 (Oxford, 2007), 4.
10. See Griffiths, Labour and the Countrysidem; Tichelar, 'Labour Party and land reform'; Tichelar, 'Conflict over property rights'; Manton, 'The Labour Party and the land question'. Neither classic histories of Labour, more recent histories nor left-oriented histories notice it. For classic accounts, see Henry Pelling, A Short History of the Labour Party, 5th edn (New York, 1976)
11. G.D.H. Cole, A History of the Labour Party From 1914 (London, 1948)
12. Carl Brand, The British Labour Party: A Short History, Revised edn (Stanford, 1974).
13. For more recent studies, see Andrew Thorpe, A History of the British Labour Party (Basingstoke and London, 1997)
14. Anthony Wright, The People's Party: The History of the Labour Party (London, 1997)
15. Duncan Tanner, Pat Thanne and Nick Tirantsoo (eds), Labour's First Century (Cambridge, UK, 2000)
16. Brian Brivati and Richard Heffernen (eds), The Labour Party: A Centenary History (New York, 2000)
17. Kevin Jefferys, The Labour Party Since 1945 (New York, 1993)
18. Eric Shaw, The Labour Party Since 1945 (Oxford, 1996)
19. Geoffrey Foote, The Labour Party's Political Thought, 3rd edn (New York, 1997)
20. Nicholas Ellison, Egalitarian Thought and Labour Politics: Retreating Visions (London and New York, 1994).
21. For more left-oriented accounts, see David Howell, British Social Democracy: A Study in Development and Decay (New York, 1976)
22. Ralph Milband, Parliamentary Socialism (London, 1961)
23. David Coates, The Labour Party and the Struggle for Socialism (London, 1975)
24. Tony Cliff and Donny Gluckstein, The Labour Party: A Marxist History (London, 1988).
25. LPCR, 1937, 182. 'The proper use of land was a central aspect of socialist planning', as Claire Griffiths correctly notes (Labour and the Countryside, 305) about the inter-war period.
26. Stephen Haseler, The Gaitskellites: Revisionism in the British Labour Party 1951-1964 (London, 1969)
27. Tudor Jones, Remaking, the Labour Party: From Gaitskell to Blair (London and New York, 1996)
28. Stephen Brooke, 'Atlantic Crossing? American views of capitalism and British socialist thought 1932-1962', TCBH, 2 (1991), 107-36
29. Martin Francis, 'Mr. Gaitskell's Ganymede? Re-assessing Crosland's The Future of Socialism', Contemporary British History, 11 (1997), 50-64
30. Ben Jackson, 'Revisionism reconsidered: "property-owning democracy" and egalitarian strategy in post-war Britain', TCBH, 16 (2005), 416-40.
31. Robert Crowcroft, 'The "high politics" of Labour party factionalism, 1950-5', Historical Research, Online Early Articles, Published article online: 9 October 2007.
32. See also, Jackson, 'Revisionism reconsidered'; Martin Francis, Ideas and Politics Under Labour 1945-1951: Building a New Britain (Manchester and New York, 1997), 17-19.
33. R.H. Tawney, The Acquisitive Society, cited by Foote, Labour Party's Political Thought, 76.
34. Anthony Crosland, The Conservative Enemy: A Programme of Radical Reform for the 1960s (London, 1962), 193.
35. Most of the relevant literature is cited by Harriet Jones and Martin Kandiah, The Myth of Cunsensus: New Views on British History, 1945-64 (London, 1996).
36. Peter Weiler, 'The rise and fall of the Conservatives' "grand design" for housing, 1951-1964', Contemporary British History, 14 (2000), 122-50.
37. For a recent helpful analysis, see Glen O'Hara, From Dreams to Disllusionment: Economic and Social Planning in 1960s Britain (Basingstoke, 2007)
38. see also Glen O'Hara and Helen Parr (eds), The Wilson Governments 1964-1970 Reconsidered (London and New York, 2006).
39. London School of Economics, Peter Shore Papers, 5/7, Speech at Reading, 11 April 1965. Skeffington was Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Land and then at the Ministry of Housing and Local Government.
40. See, for example, R. Coopey, S. Fielding and N. Tiratsoo (eds), The Wilson governments, 1964-1970 (London and New York, 1993)
41. Peter Dorey (ed.), The Labour Governments, 1964-1970 (London and New York, 2006)
42. Clive Ponting, Breach of Promise: Labour in Pozver, 1964-1970 (London, 1989)
43. O'Hara and Parr, The Wilson Governments; O'Hara, Dreams to Disillusionment. The Land Commission has been examined by J.B. Cullingworth, Environmental Planning 1939-1969, Vol. 4
44. Land Values Compensation and Betterment (London, 1980), Part 3
45. Andrew Cox, Adversary Politics and Land: The Conflict over Land and Property Policy in Post-war Britain (Cambridge, UK, 1984), Chapter 6.
46. For the general background, see Roy Douglas, Land, People and Politics: A History of the Land Question in the United Kingdom 1878-1952 (London, 1976). For the roots of Labour's concerns, see Tichelar, 'Socialists, Labour and the land'. Older, that is, Liberal-inflected, attitudes remained strong. The 213 members or the Labour Land Values group protested to John Silkin about 'compensating owners of land for a very large amount of purely speculative value' that 'should rather be squeezed out by national or local taxation of site values'. The National Archives: Public Record Office (hereafter TNA: PRO), HLG 71/587, Memorandum on Proposed Legislation on Compensation and Betterment by the Land Values Group of the Parliamentary Party, n.d. [1946].
47. T.B. Cullingworth. Town and Country Planning in Britain, 4th edn (London, 1972)
48. Gordon Cherry, Town Plannino in Britain Since 1900: The Rise and Fall of the Planning Ideal (Oxford and Cambridge, MA 1996)
49. Cmnd. 6153, Parliamentary Papers (hereafter P.P.), 1939-40, Vol. 4. Compensation referred to land compulsorily acquired by the state for some public purpose. Betterment referred to an increase in the value of land from changes in society or the granting of planning permission, as opposed to the actions of the landowner.
50. Cmnd. 6386, P.P., 1941-42, Vol. 4.
51. Cmnd. 6386, para. 11.
52. K. Jefferys, The Churchill Coalition and Wartime Politics 1940-45 (Manchester, 1997), 174-9.
53. The £300 million was presented as an act of grace on the ground that nobody had a right to compensation.
54. There was considerable debate in the government about compensation for the loss of development values. The notion that a man had an innerent right to develop his land was out-of-date', Dalton said at one point. TNA: PRO, CAB 132/20, CB (56) 4th edn, 3 December 1946.
55. See Cullingworth, Land Values, Part 1.
56. Parliamentary Debates (Commons), 432, 30 January 1947, 1226-37.
57. The Times, 6 October 1948, 5.
58. Trustram Eve, 'Central Land Board vs. Land Sellers', TNA: PRO, T 226/83, 18 October 1948.
59. TNA: PRO, T 226/83, Minute, 28 October 1948.
60. TNA: PRO, T 226/83, B.D. Fraser to various officials, 12 July 1949.
61. TNA: PRO, HLG 98/772, Memorandum on Development Charges, 15 May 1950.
62. See Cullingworth, Land Values, Part 1.
63. TNA: PRO, CAB 129/55, Eden, 'Development Charge', C (52) 325, 8 October 1952.
64. Oliver Marriott, The Property Boom (London, 1967)
65. Simon jenkins, Landlords to London: The Story of a Capital and its Growth (London, 1975).
66. For a general overview of Conservative housing policy in these years, see Weiler, 'Rise and fall'.
67. Cullingworth, Land Values, 137.
68. P. G. Gray, The British Household (London, 1948).
69. H.F. Lydall and R.F.F. Dawson, 'Household income, rent and rates', Bulletin, Oxford institute of Statistics, 16 (1954), 97-129. At the time, there were approximately 15 million households - 4.5 million owner occupied; 2.5-3 million council owned; 6.5 million unfurnished; and 1 million furnished. About 6 million houses and flats were covered by rent control.
70. Nationalization of agricultural land also remained under discussion. Both Bevan and Attlee supported it in 1953, but eventually Labour decided it was not politically feasible. See lane Morgan (ed.), The Backbench Diaries of Richard Crossman (New York, 1981), 225
71. David Howell, British Social Democracy, 197-8.
72. Rents had been frozen in 1939 but prices had risen some 300 per cent since then. TNA: PRO, HLG 101/711, The cost of house maintenance. Report of the Commitee of Inquiry', 1953. Bevan told Parliament that 'it is the case that, for political and historical reasons, the rents of residential small property have been governed by legislative control, and that has prevented that property from being properly looked after. No one here denies that.' Parliamentary Debates (Commons), 521, 30 Novernber 1953, 8822.
73. Hence, Labour's Policy and Publicity Sub-Committee concluded it would be 'unwise' to promise repeal of the Housin Repairs and Rents Act because there was a serious 'repairs problem' and that 'if we had been in power some measure of rent increases would prebably have been introduced'. Labour Party Archives, Minutes, 14 June 1954.
74. LPCR, 1956, 107.
75. Parliamentary Debates (Commons), 520, 4 November 1953, 237.
76. Parliamentary Debates (Commons), 560, 7 November 1956, 159.
77. Social Services Sub-Committee, 'Housina Policy', Rd. 184, October 1948
78. D.L. Munby, The Rent Problem (London, 1952).
79. Challenge to Britain (London, 1953), 28.
80. Challenge, 28.
81. Policy for Housing (Fabian Research Series No. 164, 1954), 15.
82. Haseler, Gaitskellites, 54.
83. The various details are listed in 'A Synopsis for the Research Project on Housing', Re. 20 January 1956.
84. 'Note from Mr. Hugh Gaitskell, M.P.' (Re. 74, June, 1956) notes that he wrote 'Suggested Redraft of Chapter I: Plans for the Future - The Local Authorities', Re. 73, June 1956.
85. Homes of the Future, 12, 13, 7. James MacColl wrote that 'Peoples' homes are just too sensitive a personal necessity for a free market to be a political probability as a permanent solution'. Plan for Rented Houses (London, 1957), 4.
86. TNA: PRO, CAB 134/807, Macmillan, 'Housing Policy', DC (52) 12, 23 August 1952.
87. Homes of the Future, 10. Labour also said it planned to offer 100 per cent mortgages to those who wanted them.
88. Report of the Housing Study Group, May 1956, Re. 63.
89. LFCR, 1956, 98-101.
90. Greenwood to Jim Griffiths, 30 August 1957, published as Re. 203, September, 1957.
91. Economists, 30 June 1956, 1262.
92. 'Castles in the Air', The Times, 25 June 1956, 9.
93. Norman Macrae, A Nation of Council Tenantry (London, 1958), 21. Macrea, assistant editor of the Economist, was a spokesman for the Rented Homes Campaign created by members of the Association of Land and Property Owners, the Property Owners' Association, and other landlord organizations.
94. See, for example, 'Investment and Financial Problems', R. 368, May 1954
95. 'Challenge to Britain - the Cost', R. 394, July 1954.
96. Tribune, 22 February 1956. Greenwood estimated the five million houses would cost E2500m, paid off (assuming 5 per cent interest) at E125 in per year.
97. News Chronicle, 5 April 1957, cited by J.O. Udal, The Times, 27 September 1958, 7. Although he did not identify himself in his letter to The Times, Udal worked for the Conservative Research Department.
98. LPA, local Government Sub-Committee, 'Municipalisation of rent controlled dwellings in the county of London', Re. 177, July 1957. After meeting Hayward, the committee wrote a stronger 'Note on the Memorandum of the London Labour Party on Labuor's Housing Policy' (Re. 401, June 1958) arguing that acquisition and repairs of the 500,000 units in London would only cost E235m and would be offset by rents, so the whole project was 'reasonable'.
99. London Municipal Archives, ACC 2417/C/86, Final Report, London Labour Party's Working Party on Labour's Housing Policy, 26 February 1959.
100. Peter Robshaw, London Labour Party Secretary, and Norman Prichard, chair of the working party, had met Labour's Local Government Sub-Committee, which expressed concern about the 'tenor' of the report, which 'amounted almost to a difference of policy'. Prichard and Robshaw promised not to issue any material that might harm the Labour Party. LMA, ACC 2417/C/86, Minutes, 15 October 1959.
101. Morgan Phillips, the Labour Party Secretary, and Anthony Greenwood both wrote to The Times in response to letters pointing out inconsistencies in Labour's policy. The Times, 24 September 1958, 11; 5 December 1958, 13; 25 September 1959, 17.
102. Home Policy Committee, 'Note on Labour's Commitments on "Municipalisation" of Rented Property', Re. 479, January 1959.
103. LPCR, 1956, 107.
104. D.E. Butler and Richard Rose, The British General Election of 1959 (London, 1960), 60-3.
105. Home Policy Sub-Committee, 'Housing: Looking Ahead', Rd. 62, June 1960. Hence the Sub-Committee concluded there should be more emphasis on building houses for sale. 'Many council tenants are, it has to be accepted, both earning comparatively high wages and occupying houses at low, subsidized rents. This problem cannot be dismissed lightly. The occupancy of such property in this way does deny low-rented housing to those who really need it.'
106. When the sub-committee discussed this paper 'the view was expressed that the problem of housing was now being increasingly overshadowed by such problems as rising land values and uncontrolled urban sprawl'. LPA, Minutes, 20 June 1960. See also 'Planning and the Community', Rd. 103, January 1961.
107. NEC, 'The State of the Party', 13 July 1960. This draft became 'The Future of the Party' (27 July 1960), which did not include this passage.
108. 'Some Examples of Current Land Prices', Rd. 23, February 1960
109. 'High Prices for Building Land', The Times, 5 July 1960, 13. The building employers called for an inquiry about the 'building land crisis'.
110. The Times, 6 July 1960, 7. Prices in London increased some 500-600 per cent between 1952 and 1963.
111. TNA: PRO, T 227/1900, G.E. Miles to Mr Hardin, 1 June 1964.
112. Marriott, Property Boom, Appendix 4. Total values declined slightly in the next few years.
113. Marriott, Property Boom, Chapters 8, 10, 11. Housing, a 1962 Penguin special by Stanley Alderson, had a chapter on 'The Property Racket'. The Tories felt so pressed on this issue that in 1962 they imposed a tax on profits from land held for less than three years.
114. 'There is little doubt that this issue of extortionate rents is developing into a first class issue and it is essential for the Party to take the initiative', a London regional organizer told R.J. Mellish. LMA, ACC 2417/K/35, L. S[imms] to Mellish, 3 August 1960. 50,000 people signed a petition protesting about overcrowding, decontrol and land speculation. The Evening Standard ran a four-part series on London's homeless, including a piece by the Bishop of Southwark, who called homelessness a 'moral challenge to the country'. Evening Standard, 15 November 1961.
115. John Greve, Dilys Pages and Stella Greve, Homelessness in London (Edinburgh and London, 1971), 90. Greve had drawn the same conclusion nine years earlier when he headed the London County Council's study of homelessness. LMA, LCC Minutes, 17 July 1962. The main problem caused by the Rent Act was less higher rents than a reduction of available flats, which were increasingly converted to owner occupation. The Rent Act also failed to stimulate new construction.
116. See also J.B. Cullingworth, English Housing Trends: A Report on the Rowntree Trust Housing Study (London, 1965).
117. P. Williams, Gaitskell, 659.
118. The Times, 11 June 1960, 6. In this speech he called for an 'new look at development finance', including 'public ownership' of urban land, and blamed higher prices on the Tories' repeal of the financial provisions of the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act. In December, he denounced the 'get-rich-quick boys' whose rise had been facilitated by the Tories. The Times, 5 December 1960, 4.
119. Parliamentary Debates (Commons), 627, 18 July 1960, 37, 43, 44, 47. Gaitskell specifically mentioned reviving the Uthwatt Committee's proposals.
120. LPCR, 1960, 120.
121. LPCR, 1960, 127.
122. LPCR, 1960, 130.
123. Signposts for the Sixties (London, 1961), 13, 5.
124. Hugh Pemberton, Policy Learning and British Governance in the 1960s (Basingstoke and New York, 2004), 3-5
125. O'Hara, Dreams to Disillusionment, Chapter 2.
126. See also Richard Toye, The Labour Party and the Planned Economy 1931-1951 (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2003).
127. Backbench Diaries, 1961, 949.
128. Signposts, 19-23.
129. See also Labour's Towns For Our Times (December, 1961).
130. The committee was chaired by Arthur Skeffington and included James MacColl, Arnold Goodman, Michael Stewart, Peter Shore and Prof. Dennis Lloyd.
131. Final Report of the Study Group on Land Problems, Rd. 343 (Revised), November 1962, 19.
132. A. Goodman and D. Lloyd, Memorandum, Rd. 225, March 1962. Goodman was a lawyer and confidant of Harold Wilson. Lloyd was a prominent barrister and a professor at the University of London.
133. Lord Silkin, Memorandum, Rd. 244, April 1962.
134. LPA, Minutes, Study Group on Land Problems, 9 July 1962.
135. Final Report of the Study Group on Land Problems, Rd. 343 (Revised), November 1962, 5.
136. Final Report of the Study Group on Land Problems, 5.
137. LPA, Minutes, Study Group on Land Problems, 26 November 1962.
138. In Signposts, Labour had retreated from municipalization, pledging only to take over houses in disrepair that landlords refused to bring up to code. See LPCR, 1961, 106-17.
139. The New Statesman, 30 June 1961; 6 October 1961, also regretted the change in policy.
140. LPCR, 1962, 120. The conference was still dominated by the trade union bloc vote. The final tally was 3.052 million to 3.092 million.
141. LPCR, 1962, 124, 123.
142. LPCR, 1963,127. Brown told the conference the Land Commission would break the spiral of high prices, secure unearned increment for the community and provide land at affordable prices to local authorities.
143. The Sunday Times broke the story between 7 and 21 July 1963. See also Shirley Green, Rachman (London, 1979)
144. Alan G.V. Simmonds, 'Raising Rachman: The origins of the rent act, 1957', Historical Journal, 45 (2002), 843-68
145. John Davis, 'Rents and race in 1960s London: New light on Rachmanism', TCBH, 12 (2001), 69-92.
146. Parliamentary Debates (Commons), 681, 22 July 1963, 1059, 1067. 'Private landlordism', Wilson said, 'has failed'. Parliamentary Debates (Commons) 681, 22 July 1963, 1076.
147. The Times, 21 September 1964, 7.
148. 'Let's Go With Labour for a New Britain', in Dale (ed.), Labour Manifestos, 115. The Tories were clearly wrong footed by this attack, as the press agreed. See, for example, Ronald Butt, 'The Conservatives' dilemma over land', Financial Times, 17 July 1964.
149. 'Let's Go With Labour for a New Britain'. in Dale (ed.), Manifestos 103-26. The 1966 manifesto, 'Time for Decision', said 'We inherited a land famine and rocketing prices, caused by the Tory decision to return to a free market in land. Tn the Crown Land Commission we are fashioning an instrument to secure a sufficiently orderly supply of land, and bring back to the community an substantial part of the development value created'. Dale, Labour Party Manifestos, 138.
150. The Times, 10 February 1964, 6.
151. Conservative Party Archive (hereafter CPA), LCC (65) 5, John Boyd-Carpenter, 'Land'.
152. CPA, CRD 3/23/1, "The Political Effect of the Land Question', 17 February 1965. D.E. Butler and Anthony King noted that 'many candidates and agents argued that in the London and Birmingham areas housing and land prices were the dominant issue - and that it operated to Labour's advantage'. The British General Election of 1964 (London, 1960, 139.
153. Financial Times, 3 February 1965.
154. TNA: PRO, HLG 118/319, Willey, 'The Land Commission', 19 November 1964.
155. TNA: PRO, HLG 148/3, Willey, 'Land Commission', 9 December 1964.
156. TNA: PRO, HLG 118/319, Willey, 'Land Commission', 19 November 1964.
157. TNA: PRO, HLG 29/697, Willey, 'Land Commission', 4 December 1964.
158. TNA: PRO, T 227/2112, J.P.P. Bryce, Minute, 5 January 1965. There were only about 1,900 valuers, many of whom were still dealing with appeals from the 1963 valuation.
159. Richard Crossman, The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister, Vol. 1: 1964-1966 (New York, 1975), 78.
160. TNA: PRO, CAB 147/152, Note of a Meeting, 10 February 1965. The meeting was with Thomas Balogh, Wilson's advisor on economic affairs.
161. TNA: PRO, CAB 134/2445, R.L.L. (65) 8, 8 February 1965.
162. TNA: PRO, CAB 134/2445, 'The Land Commission, The Scope and Powers of the Commission', R.L.L. (65) 6, 5 February 1965.
163. TNA: PRO, CAB 134/2445, Note by Officials, 4 January 1965; TNA: PRO, HLG 148/3, W.R. Cox to E. Sharp, 10 December 1964.
164. TNA: PRO, T 227/2114, J.L. Rampton to F.E.R. Butler, 12 March 1965.
165. TNA: PRO, CAB 130/224, 'Betterment levy and capital gains tax', 23 June 1965.
166. Financial Times, 10 March 1967.
167. The Land Commission, Cmnd. 2771, September 1965. P.P., 1964-1965, Vol. 29.
168. TNA: PRO, HLG 29/697, Willey, 'Land Commission', 9 December 1964.
169. The Times, 10 February 1964, 6.
170. TNA: PRO, T 330/39, Helsby to Sharp, 8 February 1965.
171. In his Diary Crossman presented this development as entirely Evelyn Sharp's doing. However, it seems from the record that the major credit belongs to Helsby who enlisted Sharp and a formidable list of key civil servants, including Sir Richard (Otto) Clarke, second secretary at the Treasury and Sir William Armstrong, joint permanent secretary at the Treasury. Morgan (ed.), Backbench Diaries, 25.
172. TNA: PRO, T 330/70, P.A. to Sir Laurence Helsby, 14 December 1965.
173. TNA: PRO, HLG 76/58, Willey to Wells, 17 April 1967.
174. House Builder, June (1967), 112.
175. See also W.H. Cauthery (Secretary of the Commission) 'How the Land Commission can help builders', House Builder, January (1968), 25.
176. TNA: PRO, AT 29/35, Greenwood to Wilson, 25 June 1967.
177. TNA: PRO, AT 29/112, SEP (68) 15, 15 July 1968.
178. In January 1969, Greenwood wrote that it was 'politically unthinkable to abolish a body during the same Parliament in which it was established'. Instead, they had to 'do all in our power to make the Land Commission work effectively'. TNA: PRO, AT 29/113, SEP (69) 9, 'Land Commission', 22 January 1969.
179. Cmnd. 4753, 1971, Ministry of Housing and Local Government Report, 1969-70. There were also 9,000 acres in the pipeline.
180. The fullest discussion is in Cullingworth, Land Values, Part 3.
181. TNA: PRO, AT 29/35, 'The Land Acquisition Policy of the Land Commission', n.d. [mid-1968].
182. TNA: PRO, AT 29/35, T.H. Caulcott to Chilver, 23 May 67.
183. TNA: PRO, AT 29/35, Caulcott to Chilver, 22 September 1967.
184. TNA: PRO, AT 29/35, Caulcott to Chilver, 23 May 67.
185. TNA: PRO, AT 29/35, Note of a Meeting, 22 May 1968.
186. TNA: PRO. AT 29/35, 25 June 1968. A month later Greenwood said, 'Experience had confirmed the view of those who had opposed setting up of the Land Commission-namely that the high prices were caused not by land hoarding but by a shortage of land'.
187. TNA: PRO, AT 29/112, Meeting, 24 July 1968.
188. What Martin Francis has written about Labour in the 1940s could also be applied to the 1950s and 1960s. 'Labour in the 1940s was no less committed to the ethical, as opposed to the economic, case for socialism than it had been in the days of the founding fathers'. 'Economics and ethics: The nature of Labour's socialism, 1945-1951', TCBH, 6 (1995), 243.
189. The example of the Land Commission certainly confirms Noel Thompson's view of Harold Wilson's Fabian political economy and its shortcomings. 'What Wilsonian political economy lacked', he writes, 'was a sense of the powers necessary to implement its strategy and the determination to acquire them'. 'The Fabian political economy of Harold Wilson', in Dorey (ed.), Labour Governments, 66.
190. New Statesman, 23 October 1964, 597.
191. House Builder and Estate Developer, the Journal of the Federation of Registered House-builders, and the National Builder, the Journal of the National Federation of Building Trades Employers, were filled with complaints about Labour's policies. What James Cronin has written about the National Plan could also be applied to the Land Commission: 'it was believed that merely unleashing the power of technology would produce growth - a utopian hope that allowed Labour and its economic planners to ignore the obvious fact that in their repertoire of policies they had no effective mechanisms for getting inside industry and making it more productive and efficient'. 'Labour's "National Plan": Inheritances, practice, legacies', The European Legacy, 6 (2001), 221-2.
192. 'Ruth Kelly announces planning shake-up', Public Servant Daily, 22 May 2007. http://www.publicservice.co.uk/news_story.asp?id=2983. Accessed on 28 June 2007. See Planning for a Sustainable Future, Cmnd. 7120, May 2007.
193. The Times, 2 October 1968, 27.
194. Peter Hall wrote in 1965 that collecting betterment was 'now accepted by all major political parties', Land Values(London, 1965), xii.
195. Socialist Commentary, usually seen as an organ of revisionist Labour, called for the creation of a new ministry of town and country planning that would take 'supreme control' over the location of industry, housing and transport. The journal found Labour's call for a Land Commission too 'vague' and proposed that the freehold of all land, including private homes, be vested in the state. Socialist Commentary, The Face of Britain: A Policy for Town and Country Planning, 1961.
196. LSE, Shore Papers, 5/7, News Release, 11 April 1965.
197. Special Meeting of the NEC, 16 March 1960.