The Labour Party is considering seizing land owned by farmers and landowners for a fraction of its potential price in an effort to build more council houses.
Labour's plans to create a new English Sovereign Land Trust will grant powers to the government to buy land at agricultural prices for housing.
The move has been announced by John Healey, the shadow housing minister. His plans will allow the Trust to buy up large plots of agricultural and industrial land - with compulsory purchase if necessary.
Mr Healey explained that the move would lead to cheaper housing and help free up space for the 100,000 council homes the party has pledged to construct per year.
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".
Small family farms
In a statement, CLA Director of Policy and Advice Christopher Price said it will be small family farms who will "suffer".
“The best way to tackle the housing crisis is to remove the massive barriers that still stand in the way of private landowners who want to invest in providing, usually small, housing schemes in rural areas,” Mr Price explained.
“These include uncertainties of navigating the chaotic and under-resourced planning system and a penal tax system that too often disincentives positive investment.
“Compulsory purchase of land should only ever be a last resort and in practice it is far more likely to be small family farms that suffer, not the big players who have far more means to defend themselves.”
'Incremental change'
Mr Price said the CLA cannot support another "incremental change" that would make things more "complex and adversarial".
He added: “The principle of capturing land value uplifts to fund public benefits from infrastructure investment to environmental benefits or social housing is well understood.
“The current system has the means to do this in a number of ways, we would not support yet another incremental change that would merely make things even more complex and adversarial.
“We are open to a more fundamental look at these issues, but it must start from the point of view of working with landowners not seeking to forcibly remove their assets at artificial low prices.”
