> Can you imagine how great it would be if that map extended to the > whole country, and showed the land registry information for every last > piece of land? I reckon many people's view of where power really lies > in our country would shift quite a bit for the better (as well as > being a handy tool for people working out where to buy or build > stuff).
I couldn't agree more! It would certainly shine a spot light on the wealth inequality in the UK - and the privilege structures that prop it up. Have a read of Kevin Cahill's 'Who owns Britain' for his foray into this topic (a fascinating book) - perhaps enlist him in the project! http://www.amazon.co.uk/Owns-Britain-Ireland-Kevin-Cahill/dp/1841953105/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319397336&sr=8-1 "In 1876 every citizen of Great Britain could go to his or her local county hall, Parish office or library and find the names and addresses of the owners of over 95% of the land area of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales." (because of the 1872 Return of Owners of Land) "In 2001 the same information is scattered in four land registries...Access to the four registries is on a one-at-a-time basis. In the case of...England and Wales between 30% and 50% of the acreage is unregistered." In the book Cahill has to use a combination of the 1872 data and detective work, to estimate who owned what in 2001. One table of the top landowners looks like this (Table 1/7B p19) 1. The top 40,000 millonaire agricultural landowners in the UK - 28,180,212 acres 2. The 16,800,000 private homeowners in the UK - 2,800,800 acres 3. Forestry Commission - 2,400,000 acres 4. The MoD - 750,000 acres 5. Lands controlled by the Royal Family (Crown Estate, Duchies of Cornwall and Lancs and private ) - 677,000 acres How about that for the OccupyFolks to latch on to regarding the 1% and the 99% ! Chris _______________________________________________ developers-public mailing list [email protected] https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public Unsubscribe: https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/options/developers-public/archive%40mail-archive.com
