Labour's John McDonnell has promoted the idea of a "collective ownership of land" if the party achieves power.
The Shadow Chancellor mentioned the phrase at a party speech in St Pancras Church in London earlier this week.
Mr McDonnell told the rally: "One of the big issues we're now talking about is land, how do we go about looking at collective ownership of land, Community Land Trusts, the development of those by local communities that's a huge challenge to the existing power relationships within our society at the moment, it's one I think that could be fundamentally important."
Community Land Trusts are a form of community-led housing, set up and run by local people to develop and manage homes as well as other assets. There are now around 290 CLTs in England and Wales.
However, the phrase "collective ownership of land" has raised eyebrows, considering such a policy is associated with communist regimes.
It is not the first time the Labour party under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership has sparked controversy regarding land use and ownership.
Andrew Fisher, senior policy adviser to Mr Corbyn, wrote a book in 2014 entitled 'The Failed Experiment', whilst he was a union official.
In it, he called land ownership “ridiculous”: “The land was here before we were born and it will be here after we are long since departed. Does this mean all land should be publicly owned? Perhaps,” he wrote in the book.
Earlier this year, the Labour Party announced that it would consider buying land owned by farmers and landowners for a fraction of its potential price in an effort to build more council houses, under an English Sovereign Land Trust.
The CLA, a landowner organisation whose members own or manage more than 10 million acres of rural land across England and Wales, said compulsory purchase of land should be a "last resort".
In a statement, CLA Director of Policy and Advice Christopher Price said it will be small family farms who will "suffer".
