24th June 2012

My house is semi-detached.

I have a front garden which I have recently improved by planting bushes and surfacing the area with green slate.

The rest of the frontage offers a car parking space.

Like most of the UK it can be seen from a satellite on google maps.

At the rear of our deceptively spacious house is a tiny garden into which we have introduced the conceit of a 'wild flower' meadow.

This is 'our small' society.

As English folks, it also our deceptively spacious castle!

Today I read that the Chancellor, as revealed by Ms Spelman, is to undertake a review of Britain's wild and open spaces.

They are all, from Snowdonia, through the Lake District to the Norfolk Broads to be 'valued'.

A price will be put on everything from landscape, to views, to scenic value.

This is the Big Society as viewed by people who know the 'price' of everything and the 'value' of nothing.

Land is the essential commodity when it comes to the development of housing and industry and the common good.

Apparently the basic formula for assessing the feasibility of a development project is to divide the overall cost by third's.

The land, the building cost, the builders profit are the three critical elements of any development and they are inextricably linked, so with and out-turn price of £900k, made up say of nine houses selling at £100k each, the land and the build cost should amount to £600k leaving a profit of £300k for the developer.

Not exactly rocket science.

So the formula, with suitable guarantees from the Government, means that developments in and around the Olympic Park are racing ahead, with land values assured, building costs controlled and profits thereby guaranteed.

Meanwhile in Bradford the same developer's grand schemes remain a hole in the ground.

The flat land in the centre of the City, under the watchful gaze of the Cathedral Church of St. Peter
was , historically exactly that, a hole in the ground.

It was also full of water because it was a canal basin, the main road into the centre of Bradford from the North is still called Canal Road, because it follows the canal spur off the Leeds - Liverpool Canal, into the centre of the City.

It is still possible to follow the route, some of the canal bridges are still there, from the tow path of the Leeds - Liverpool Canal the original spur can be identified and ironically, the single lock on the spur with it's gates can be seen, surrounded by car dealerships.

Bradford, was ahead of its time, the canal basin was a source of illness and disease affecting the population and so the decision, in the light of emerging new and more flexible transport for bringing raw materials into the mills and taking the finished pieces out, was to empty the canal basin and fill it in.

The result was a few acres of flat land in the centre of town and a healthier population.

The land might be worth a third of some fanciful out-turn value, the building costs might add another third, but the profit in developing the centre of a northern town in the middle of a depression is unlikely to produce the final third, so the development is on hold.

It will be interesting to know what our share of the value of GB Ltd will be worth when Mr Osborne's valuers have undertaken their valuation.

If we then review the development costs times three we might even achieve some sense of what we're all worth, both corporately and individually, but be careful of what you wish for because the next step might be for HMRC to tax the notional profit we have all realised.

But hey! We live on an off shore island so whilst we're at it let's make it a tax haven too ..........