If an incoming Labour government is looking for ideas on how to improve the affordability and livability of British cities, it could do well to learn from Vienna, the world’s most livable city (The social housing secret: how Vienna became the world’s most livable city, 10 January). Rather than privatising public landholdings at a fraction of their value, as undertaken by Margaret Thatcher, much of the land in Vienna is held under public ownership or by cooperatives, reducing the inflationary pressures of speculators and making housing affordable and attractive in socially mixed communities.
A start could be made by taxing land at its existing or approved land value; this would put developers in the UK under pressure to deliver housing for which they have planning permission, helping to meet increasing needs. Promoting communal landholdings and requiring that at least 35% of all new housing is genuinely affordable would improve social diversity, while increasing the number of council tax bands would enhance the revenues of local authorities and finance environmental improvements and public facilities.
Geoffrey Payne
London
• Do you have a photograph you’d like to share with Guardian readers? If so, please click here to upload it. A selection will be published in our Readers’ best photographs galleries and in the print edition on Saturdays.
