Wales

Overview

Wales occupies an unusual position in contemporary Georgist debate: not an implementation, and not a live legislative proposal, but the site of the most sustained official study of land value taxation feasibility anywhere in the UK, running inside the Welsh Government's local-government-finance-reform programme since 2017.[1] That programme has produced a stalled 2018 attempt at a narrower vacant-land tax, a 2019 technical feasibility assessment, a 2025 ministerial commitment to move "beyond the theoretical," and a February 2026 pair of academic working papers reviewing the international evidence and scoping how land would even be valued — but, as of this page's last review, no completed field test of any valuation method and no LVT bill.

Devolved Tax Powers and the Council Tax/NDR Baseline

Wales gained the two local property taxes it now administers — Council Tax on residential property and Non-Domestic Rates (NDR) on commercial property — at devolution in 1999, with primary legislative competence over both only since 2011.[1] Council Tax bands still rest on 2003 property valuations (already one revaluation newer than England's 1991-based bands — see the United Kingdom page and Andy Burnham), and fund only around 15% of local authority spending, with the balance made up mostly through a Welsh Government Revenue Support Grant (£4.9bn for 2025–26).[1] Since the Wales Act 2014, Wales has also administered its own Land Transaction Tax (replacing Stamp Duty Land Tax) and a Landfill Disposals Tax, both run by the Welsh Revenue Authority (established 2017), plus Welsh Rates of Income Tax from 2019 (administered by HMRC).[1] In 2018 Wales selected a vacant land tax — narrower than a full LVT, but built on the same Georgist logic of taxing idle land to encourage development — as a candidate for its first entirely new devolved tax; it required UK Government sign-off, and discussions with HM Treasury remained at an "impasse" as of 2024.[1]

The 2025 Political Moment: Drakeford's Senedd Statement

On 11 June 2025, Wales's finance secretary Mark Drakeford told the Senedd that a land value tax remained on the table as a long-term replacement for Council Tax and business rates, pointing to Denmark and Singapore as international comparators.[2] Drakeford framed the immediate task as closing the gap between theoretical appeal and practical feasibility: "I am anxious to see this discussion move beyond the theoretical and into the realms of the practically possible."[2] He confirmed the Welsh Government had invited tenders to test approaches to valuing land, "with submissions for every aspect of the work," adding: "I want to use the coming months to test the boundaries of what might be possible in the next Senedd term... Let's open the door to more radical, fundamental and progressive reform in the future."[2] Opposition Senedd member Peter Fox agreed Council Tax "will never really become a fair local tax" but pressed instead for reform of what he called the "outdated and flawed" local government funding formula, to which Drakeford replied that all 22 Welsh local authorities agree the formula needs revision but disagree on how.[2]

The 2026 Evidence Review and Valuation-Methods Scoping

The first published research outputs of this renewed push arrived in February 2026: two working papers by Dr Bryonny Goodwin-Hawkins (Countryside and Community Research Institute), written under a UKRI Policy Fellowship on Welsh local government finance reform. The first, a systematic review of 70 international empirical studies, concluded that LVT's commonly cited efficiency and equity claims are "plausible in theory but not strongly supported by direct empirical evidence," with real-world effects "typically localised and context-dependent." The second identified five families of land-valuation method (market-based statistical, algorithmic/machine-learning, formula-based, conventional professional appraisal, and innovative/experimental) as candidates for testing in Wales, concluding "no single optimal method exists." Full findings, the seven claims tested, and an important honest-limits point about how this programme's status has been characterised elsewhere on the wiki live on the dedicated research page: A Land Value Tax for Wales? The Welsh Government Valuation-Testing Programme.

Wales's Deeper Georgist Connection: David Lloyd George

Wales's most consequential historical link to land value taxation predates this programme by well over a century. David Lloyd George, architect of the UK's 1909 People's Budget land value duties and its Limehouse defence of them, was raised from early childhood in Llanystumdwy, Caernarfonshire, and represented the Welsh constituency of Caernarfon Boroughs in Parliament for 55 years. The full account of his career and the 1909 campaign lives on his own page and the United Kingdom place profile, per the wiki's one-finding-one-home rule; this page notes the connection rather than duplicating it.

See Also

• A Land Value Tax for Wales? The Welsh Government Valuation-Testing Programme — the deep home for the 2026 evidence review and valuation-methodology findings
• United Kingdom — the wider UK land-tax record, including the 1909 People's Budget and the 2026 Burnham premiership's LVT debate
• David Lloyd George — the Welsh-raised architect of Britain's closest historical approach to a national land value tax
• Objection: Land value can't be assessed accurately — the general objection Wales's valuation-methods scoping work bears on
• Denmark — one of the two international comparators Mark Drakeford cited in his 2025 Senedd statement
• Andy Burnham — whose 2026 UK-wide LVT campaign cites this Welsh programme's findings

Sources

1. Bryonny Goodwin-Hawkins (2026), A Land Value Tax for Wales? Claims and contexts, Working Paper version 3.0, Countryside and Community Research Institute — Welsh Government copy · eprints copy — used for the devolved-tax timeline (1999/2011/2014/2017/2018/2019), the Council Tax/NDR/LTT/Landfill Disposals Tax structure, the Revenue Support Grant figure, and the stalled 2018 vacant land tax; full citation and further findings on the dedicated research page.
2. Chris Haines, "Land value tax in Wales could replace council tax and rates," South Wales Guardian, 11 June 2025. southwalesguardian.co.uk — used for Mark Drakeford's Senedd statement, the Denmark/Singapore comparators, the tender-invitation announcement, and Peter Fox's response.
3. The biographical detail on Lloyd George's Caernarfonshire upbringing and Caernarfon Boroughs seat is fully cited, primary source by primary source, on the wiki's David Lloyd George page — see its Sources section for direct URLs; not repeated here per the wiki's delta rule.