ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the working mechanisms of the instruments, and the commentaries provide information on different national contexts. Planning instruments have evolved in a context of resource profusion and have inherent difficulties dealing with changing uses within the already built environment. Property rights protect the landowners against the action of the state through land use plans and other planning instruments. It is essential to understand not only how instruments function, but moreover how they can be used strategically. Paradoxically, in the three instruments – reference land values, land value taxes, and betterment taxes – it is not the instrument itself that is contested in terms of effectivity, but rather their strong redistributive effects. The different instruments of land policy have different effects on scarcity of land. To address scarcity issues, these instruments need to be complemented with instruments from the other types. Reducing scarcity of undeveloped land increases scarcity inside the growth boundary.