Liberals believe that certain industries cannot easily be made to serve the wider interests of society if they are run for profit, but we would like to move the debate on, to consider other forms of ownership and control. We advocate more employee, community and consumer involvement in the running of state owned enterprises.
Liberals would like to see positive help for employee co-operatives in the form of tax incentives, soft loans and grants. We are also aware of the need for changes in company law to permit alternative company structures.
In larger companies there should be supervisory boards, elected equally by employees and shareholders, with specific powers in relation to such matters as directors' pay, takeovers and major decisions of company strategy.
By merging the tax and benefit systems into a single tax credit system (already working in several other countries) it is possible to eliminate the "poverty trap", whereby those on low incomes can be worse off if they earn more due to the loss of benefits. With universal rather than means tested benefits we thus create a "citizen's income" which can be linked to a minimum wage.
When planning permission is given for housing or a supermarket on vacant land the owner often makes a huge instant profit. This illustrates the point that land values are publicly created. Land value taxation seeks to return to the community some of that value. It is an easy tax to assess, hard to avoid and gives an incentive to put derelict land to use.