All Property is Partnership

I think it was Marx who said all property is theft, and some of my discussions today have left me thinking about who owns things, especially the land. As I’ve talked about before, we are trying to turn the church hall car park into a new Square for the village thus transforming Mytholmroyd into a new market town. The land we want to transform belongs to the church, is leased to Calderdale, and is used by commuters who see it as their car park.
So who owns the land?
The vision of the Church of England is that they and by extension the buildings exist for the nation, or the community that they serve…
“The earth is the Lords and all that is in it.” So there you are it belongs to God.But Calderdale maintain it …and the car owners, “own” it, it’s their car park.Perhaps it would be better if we saw all ownership as a partnership. Property is not theft but exclusive property may well be. All buildings all land development is a partnership… and so together we need to work out what to do with it. And that discussion is what regeneration is all about...