Coalition for Economic Justice (C4EJ)

Overview

The Coalition for Economic Justice (C4EJ) is a British cross-party advocacy group, comprising "political groups, pressure groups and charities that came together in 2008 in response to the economic crisis of that year," proposing "the introduction of an annual Location Value Tax (LVT) (also known as a Land Value Tax) to reduce existing taxes on enterprise and labour."[1] Its steering group meets monthly at 11 Mandeville Place, London — the School of Economic Science's London headquarters — and draws contributors from across the UK's Georgist and land-reform organizations, including Andrew Purves and members of the Labour Land Campaign.[1][2]

History and Leadership

C4EJ convened House of Commons seminars promoting LVT in March 2009 and again in March 2016.[1] John Lipetz chaired the coalition for its first eight years before stepping down in March 2016; Peter Bowman succeeded him as Chair in April 2016, with Ed Randall and David Hirst as Deputy Chairs and Rob Blakemore continuing as Secretary.[2] New steering-group members joining in 2016-17 included Andrew Purves (affiliated with the School of Economic Science), Peter Smith (Labour Land Campaign), and economist Laurie Heykoop.[2]

The OPDC Submission

In a joint submission to London's New London Plan public consultation, C4EJ's Working Group on the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) — authored by Ed Randall on behalf of the group, with Andrew Purves and John Lipetz credited as contributors — argued for capturing land-value uplift to fund the OPDC's redevelopment of one of London's largest regeneration sites.[1] The submission proposed an irrevocable OPDC land trust, partnerships with public developers modeled on Hong Kong's MTR Corporation and London & Continental Railways, Public Works Loan Board funding, and ground rents tied to land value, citing a companion report titled "Let's Supercharge the OPDC and bring 'Singapore' to Thames side."[1] It cited UK Budget "Blue Book" data (via the Office for National Statistics) showing UK land value rose from £0.7 trillion to £3.9 trillion (+479%) between 1996 and 2016, versus dwelling value growth of only £0.5 trillion to £1.5 trillion (+203%) over the same period, with land coming to exceed 70% of residential property value.[1]

2016-17 Activity

C4EJ's own annual report for 2016-17 documents a wide and specific range of engagement. Following the Greater London Authority Planning Committee's February 2016 report "Tax Trial: A Land Value Tax for London?", then-Mayor Sadiq Khan responded positively in January 2017, expressing interest in an LVT pilot through the OPDC though noting primary legislation would be required; the London Finance Committee's "Devolution: a capital idea" (January 2017) recommended trialing an LVT pilot on undeveloped land, and a GLA/TfL "Land Value Capture" report (February 2017) set out a ten-point plan to improve land-value-uplift extraction.[2] At Westminster, a House of Commons seminar chaired by Kelvin Hopkins MP (23 March 2016) featured Stuart Adam (Institute for Fiscal Studies), Heather Wetzel (Labour Land Campaign), and Molly Scott Cato MEP, with Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell in attendance and voicing support, although sustained follow-up engagement with his policy team proved slow.[2] In Scotland, C4EJ tracked the Scottish Land Reform Bill's Royal Assent (April 2016) and the founding of the Scottish Land Commission (April 2017), and reported the March 2017 SNP Conference passing a motion committing the Scottish government to explore "all fiscal options including ways of taxing the value of undeveloped land."[2] The report also references the New Economics Foundation's "Rethinking the Economics of Land & Housing" (February 2017, by Josh Ryan-Collins, Toby Lloyd, and Laurie Macfarlane), Dave Wetzel's "Underground Treasure" report on LVT for rail funding (commissioned by the RMT union, September 2016), and David Triggs — President of the International Union for Land Value Taxation — attending the UN's Habitat III conference in Quito (October 2016), whose resulting New Urban Agenda endorsed land-value-capture measures in its Section 137.[2]

Relation to the Georgist Case

C4EJ is a rare, documented example of a durable, cross-party UK advocacy coalition sustaining land-value-tax engagement with Parliament, the London Assembly, and the Scottish government across more than a decade — a useful complement to the wiki's coverage of the Labour Land Campaign and the Henry George Foundation (UK), showing the institutional density of the UK's Georgist movement beyond any single organization.

Nuances and Limits

• Two different documents, two different confidence levels. The OPDC submission (source 1) was read in full text; the 2016-17 annual report (source 2) was fetched and read directly this session but its exact wording was not independently cross-checked word-for-word against a saved copy.
• A single reporting year's activity log. This page documents C4EJ's 2016-17 activities in detail because that is the specific annual report available; it does not describe the coalition's more recent (2018-2026) activity, beyond the 2018 OPDC submission and later Scottish Land Commission and parliamentary evidence work documented on Andrew Purves's page.

See Also

• Andrew Purves
• School of Economic Science — hosts C4EJ's steering-group meetings
• Henry George Foundation (UK)
• Labour Land Campaign
• International Union for Land Value Taxation
• MTR Corporation
• London · United Kingdom

Sources

1. Ed Randall, on behalf of the Coalition for Economic Justice Working Group on the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC), submission to the New London Plan public consultation, undated (post-2015, pre-2018 per internal references). london.gov.uk PDF — full text read directly 2026-09-03 — used for C4EJ's 2008 founding, its 2009/2016 House of Commons seminars, the OPDC land-value-capture proposal, the Andrew Purves/John Lipetz contributor credits, and the ONS land/dwelling-value growth figures (A-claim; full text read).
2. Coalition for Economic Justice, "Annual Report 2016-2017." c4ej.com/cej-reports-announcements/cej-annual-report-2016-2017 — fetched and read directly 2026-09-03 — used for the leadership transition (Lipetz to Bowman), the 2016-17 steering-group membership, and the London/Westminster/Scotland activity log (A-claim; full page content read directly, not independently cross-checked word-for-word).