Citizen’s land security bill
September 2004 - Tony Gosling - The Land Is Ours/Ecovillage Network UK
10-12 Picton Street. Montpelier, Bristol, BS6 5QA – 0117 944 6219

Object: To begin the process of returning the land in the UK to the people to whom it rightly belongs.
Methodology: Given that land – and its associated rights - is a free gift to mankind as a whole – not to particular individuals, this legislation will begin the process of divesting particular individual and corporate freeholders of title to excessive amounts of that land and distributing it fairly to whoever amongst the poorest in the land wishes to have it 
Current situation: With roughly 10% of the population of the UK owning 95% of the land many ordinary people are entirely without security – the strain on current housing stock means prices are spiralling out of all realistic measure of a home’s actual worth and the need for more homes is only being restrained by a draconian development control system.
Historical models: There are two historical models which will be referred to throughout this bill, both occurring in and around the 1880’s in the British Isles. Firstly the handing over of title to land in Ireland to impoverished tenants through a series of acts of parliament culminating in the Wyndham Acts. Secondly the enshrining in British law the customary practices of the Scottish crofters through the Royal Commission into the grievances of the Crofters and the subsequent Crofting Act.
Powerful landed interests: human beings can be particularly nasty and graspingly territorial when it comes to the idea of controlling or owning land. Dirty tricks and underhand tactics to dilute or stop such a bill progressing through to legal enactment must be expected and allowed for. At all times it must be explained to landowners affected by this and subsequent bills that their land is held from the crown – it is not their own – and that in almost every case has been gained historically in various unethical ways including as a crude ‘reward’ for bloodshed. 
Stages of the bill
1.	The setting up of a land commission of 12 individuals with a proven track record in land rights and a UK government ministry of land with the task of ensuring that all Britain’s citizens have access to land.
2.	The identification by the commission of Britain’s top 10 individual and corporate landowners and the opening by the ministry of a list of individuals in various degrees of housing need to take part in the land resettlement programme. These individual will be prioritised by a points system similar to that used on local authority housing lists.
3.	The organising of people in the land resettlement list into clusters of like-minded individuals and the setting up of individual workers co-operatives using the same rules of succession and land management as in the Crofting Acts. Each Ecovillage will contain a proportion of at least 50% of the land as collectively managed but ideally more like 90% collectively managed.
4.	The selection by the commission of 10% of large landowners’ land for reclaiming by the crown (the current ultimate landowner) into the crown estates.
5.	The appointment by the commission of a further group of 7 experts in Permaculture, Bioregionalism, alternative technology and low-impact land use to divide reclaimed crown land into areas which can readily support between 500 and 1000 people with a density of roughly ¼ acre per individual. This ‘Ecovillage commission’ will designate particular areas as ‘village centres’ and arrange for the building of large meeting halls. They will also clear and landscaping rail/roadways to be completed by the villagers themselves. 
6.	The transfer of freehold from the crown estates to the new co-operatives and the apportioning of interest free land ministry loans repayable over at least 80 years to build on granted land.

The Land Is Ours - www.tlio.org.uk 
Ecovillage Network UK - www.evnuk.org.uk