Who Owns Land in Britain?

More than a third of Britain’s land is still in the hands of a tiny group of aristocrats. A group of 36,000 individuals or 0.6% of the population own 50% of rural land. And researchers estimate that 20 million acres out of Britain’s 60 million acres of land is actually owned by a wealthy group of 1,200 aristocrats and their relatives.

The top private land owner not just in Britain but Europe as well is the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensbury with four estates that cover 240,000 acres in England and Scotland. The most valuable land belongs to the Duke of Westminster, Grosvenor Estate, valued at £6 billion which includes Belgravia and Mayfair. Prince Charles, the Duke of Cornwall has 133,000 acres and is third in the individual owners list. More than 2.5 million acres is under Government-run Forestry Commission.

About 70% of the population in Britain has a stake in land, which collectively own 5% of the U.K. that is urban. But that is a mere 3 million out of 60 million acres. Britain urgently needs land reform. England, is of the most urbanised countries in the world had abundant spare acres. Environmentalists and countryside lobbies, sell the propaganda that U.K. is a small, crowded island. But at the current rate of urbanisation which is 14,400 acres per year, England will not be “concretised” for 2,014 years. Behind the scare stories, a simple financial fact is an acre of rural land worth £5,000 becomes £500,000 as development land and £1 million once planning permission is obtained. In the U.K., the “farmer” receives between £12,260 and £23,000 per year from the taxpayer for an average farm of 220 acres plus, irrespective if he or she grows anything or herds anything. The subsidy is up to £5 billion which comes from the British taxpayer and not from Brussels. In effect, agriculture subsidy goes to 0.36% of the population who owns 70% of the country. The result is the cost of a building site is 2-3 times more than what it should be. Reform is not easy as no proper land registry is available. The Crown has feudal claim to all land in the U.K. and land laws need to be simplified.

What about Malaysia? Our three categories, Malay Reserve Land, freehold and leasehold land require further research.

References:

1. Look who owns Britain: A third of the country still belongs to the aristocracy, Mail Online, 10 November 2010

2. The great property swindle: why so few people in Britain own so much of our land? By Kevin Cahill, Newstatesman