Andrew Purves

Overview

Andrew Purves is a London-based Georgist economist and author, affiliated with the School of Economic Science (now the School of Philosophy and Economic Science) and an active contributor to UK land-value-tax policy work through the Coalition for Economic Justice and direct submissions to UK and Scottish government bodies.

No Debt, High Growth, Low Tax (2015)

Purves is the author of No Debt, High Growth, Low Tax: Hong Kong's Economic Miracle Explained (Shepheard-Walwyn, November 2015), which examines how Hong Kong financed public transit and infrastructure by capturing land value directly — the government leasing land at pre-development prices to the MTR Corporation, which then develops and retains the resulting real-estate value uplift around its own stations, generating substantial ongoing profit (cited elsewhere as HK$10.3 billion, roughly £792 million, in the year to March 2016) without public subsidy.[1][4] The book is cited repeatedly in his later policy work as the model case for infrastructure-financed-by-land-value-capture.

Land Value Tax: Overcoming the Challenges (2018)

Purves co-authored, with Stephen Stretton and Tony Vickers, the cover-story article "Land Value Tax: Overcoming the Challenges" in Land & Liberty No. 1243 (Summer 2018), published by the Henry George Foundation (UK).[2] The article was explicitly part of a formal submission by the School of Economic Science, with the Foundation's support, to the Scottish Land Commission's 2017 tender inviting research on international land-value-tax experience to identify policy options for Scotland.[2] Beyond surveying LVT's history (from the Physiocrats through Henry George, the UK's 1909 People's Budget, and repeated post-war British betterment-charge attempts that were each repealed) and international comparisons (Denmark, the Baltic states), the article proposes two original mechanisms: Norm-Based Taxation, designed to capture LVT's full economic effect via indexed revaluation without an initial jump in individual tax bills, and Location Value Covenants (LVCs), a scheme — building on Robin Wrigley's 2010/2017 proposal — to replace conventional mortgages with land sale-and-leaseback contracts issued by a central bank or "Community Land Society."[2]

UK Parliament Written Evidence (2018)

In March 2018, Purves and Dr Peter Bowman submitted formal written evidence — reference LVC0035, explicitly "on behalf of the School of Economic Science" — to the UK Parliament Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee's land value capture inquiry.[3] The submission argued existing UK land-value-capture mechanisms are "partial, contested, complex, discretionary, costly to negotiate," estimating that of £12.4 billion in land value uplift in England in 2014-15, only about £3.12 billion was captured through Section 106 agreements, Community Infrastructure Levies, and public land sales — leaving roughly £9.3 billion uncaptured — and again cited Hong Kong's MTR model as a comparison, alongside recommendations to build cross-party support, consider gradual implementation via reformed Business Rates or Council Tax, and design transition mechanisms to protect existing owners.[3]

Coalition for Economic Justice

Purves joined the Coalition for Economic Justice's steering group in 2016-17, and is separately credited as a contributor to C4EJ's 2018-19 Working Group submission on redeveloping London's Old Oak and Park Royal district (OPDC), alongside Ed Randall and John Lipetz.[4] He also spoke at a C4EJ open meeting in June 2016 on Hong Kong transit infrastructure financing.[5]

Bears On

• Organization: School of Economic Science — Purves's affiliated institution, which formally sponsored his Scottish Land Commission and parliamentary submissions.
• Organization: Coalition for Economic Justice — the UK cross-party coalition where Purves has served on the steering group and contributed policy submissions.
• Organization: MTR Corporation — the Hong Kong case study central to Purves's book and subsequent policy arguments.

See Also

• School of Economic Science
• Coalition for Economic Justice
• Henry George Foundation (UK)
• MTR Corporation
• Hong Kong
• Land Value Tax

Sources

1. Andrew Purves, No Debt, High Growth, Low Tax: Hong Kong's Economic Miracle Explained (London: Shepheard-Walwyn, November 2015) — cited via its treatment in sources 2-4 (C-claim; book itself not independently obtained and read this session).
2. Stephen Stretton, Andrew Purves & Tony Vickers, "Land Value Tax: Overcoming the Challenges," Land & Liberty No. 1243 (Summer 2018): 9-15, published by the Henry George Foundation (UK). cooperative-individualism.org PDF — full text read directly 2026-09-03 — used for the Scottish Land Commission submission context, the LVT history/international-comparison survey, and the Norm-Based Taxation/Location Value Covenant proposals (A-claim; full text read).
3. Dr Peter Bowman & Andrew Purves, written evidence submitted on behalf of the School of Economic Science, UK Parliament Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee land value capture inquiry, reference LVC0035, March 2018. committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/87671 — direct fetch blocked by a Cloudflare bot-challenge; full text obtained via a reader-proxy route (r.jina.ai) 2026-09-03 — used for the £12.4bn/£3.12bn/£9.3bn land-value-uplift figures and the policy recommendations (A-claim; full text read via proxy).
4. Ed Randall, on behalf of the Coalition for Economic Justice Working Group on OPDC, submission to the New London Plan public consultation. wiki summary — used for Purves's contributor credit and the MTR Corporation profit figure (A-claim; full text read directly, part of the same session's verification of the C4EJ page).
5. Coalition for Economic Justice, "Annual Report 2016-2017." wiki summary — used for Purves's 2016-17 steering-group membership and his June 2016 talk on Hong Kong transit financing (A-claim; full page content read directly).