DEVELOPMENT LAND TAX: THE BASES OF VALUE

The history of the taxation of development value in the UK is long, exceedingly complicated and, until the mid‐1970s, a saga of failure for political, administrative and technical reasons. The Development Land Tax (DLT) Act of 1976 had a somewhat uncharacteristic birth, since the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Conservative Government of 1970–74 resolved in December, 1973, to attempt to tax development value from land in a special way. His subsequent tenure of office was short and the succeeding Labour Chancellor decided that the opportunity should not be missed. Moreover, the confusion created by the December, 1973, statement needed to be regularised to bring back some measure of certainty during those turbulent times in the area of property and development.