The message ews.net
from "Doctor Drivel" contains these words:

He is on about parasites. The Royal family and the British aristocracy are
the biggest parasites, along with their mates, through controlling land,
which means very high land prices, which means high rents and house prices.

Drivel barking up the wrong tree as usual. Land is cheap, in some cases
very cheap. You may not now be able to buy square miles of Highland
Scotland at £50 per acre but I bet some of it still goes somewhere near
that price. Outside the home counties I doubt whether you would find any
farm land at more that £4000 per acre. The much higher prices often
quoted actually disguises the fact that included in the purchase price
is a substantial mansion, outbuildings, etc.

The real reason that building land is so expensive is an excess of
demand over supply and the reason for that is twofold. The first is that
almost all of the most desirable urban real estate has long since been
built on and the second is that planning controls severely restrict
expansion into undeveloped areas. Planning controls that governments of
both persuasions have long deemed necessary for the ultimate good of the
country. Dribble of course who can't see as far as the end of his nose
with any clarity thinks that unrestricted development everywhere is a
good thing which should be a warning to us all.

--
Roger Chapman