190 History of Local Rates 
the present system to the new would certainly reduce 
the net yield of the property to the owner who does 
not sell it, the fact that it would also reduce the capital 
value or selling price in just the same proportion, 
would make the continued holding of the land exactly 
as good an investment as before. If I hold prospective 
building land worth at present £1,000, and a change 
in methods of rating reduces the value to £800, why 
should I sell any more than before? And if I am 
frightened into selling by the talk of the promoters of 
the scheme, why should the braver person who buys 
at £800 proceed immediately to sell at a loss ? 
It will perhaps be said in answer to this that the 
encouragement to building afforded by the exemption 
of buildings from rates will cause a larger demand for 
land, so that it will be more profitable to sell for 
immediate building than it is now. This means that 
the occupiers will be ready to pay the increased rate 
on the land and a rent not reduced so much as the 
rate is increased; to put it in another way, the 
occupier, no longer having to look forward to paying 
rates on his building, will be ready to pay more (in 
rates plus rent or interest on capital expended in pur- 
chase) for land on the outskirts than he is now. But 
the argument appears to be unsound. So far from 
encouraging building in the outskirts, it appears that 
the proposed scheme would provide distinet and 
strong encouragement to unwholesome concentration 
of buildings in the centre of towns. At present it is 
all the same, so far as rates are concerned, to a man 
whether he lays out money in buying more ground or 
in extra cost of building higher: whether he spends 
another thousand pounds in buying extra land on