[fy20]

> these nobles have lost their inherent power

The nobles were the land owners, the business owners, the OG entrepreneurs, they were educated, and their children would grow up to be the same.

Historically the system made sense. But the last 150 years or so have basically taken their power away.

A couple of years ago an estate - that included a 9 bedroom country house, plus an entire village with a population of 100 people, and a church - was sold by noblety near where I grew up. The price was in the low tens of millions, not that much.

[tasuki]

> A couple of years ago an estate - that included a 9 bedroom country house, plus an entire village with a population of 100 people, and a church - was sold by noblety near where I grew up. The price was in the low tens of millions, not that much.

Entire village? How's that work? What can the new owner do with the village? I imagine the inhabitants aren't enslaved?

[roryirvine]

Collects ground rent. A few hundred pounds each year from everyone who owns property or land in and around the village.

[tasuki]

Ah, so the property is owned by the people living there, while the land is owned by someone else? That sounds like a nightmare for everyone involved. Is this common in the UK?

[roryirvine]

Yes, it's a system called leasehold which has its roots in medieval feudalism. Essentially, a property owner owns the building and a long-term (usually either 99 or 990 years) lease on the ground it sits on.

Everyone recognises that it's absurd, and there've been attempts to fix it for over a century. They've already gone in Scotland, and the previous government finally passed legislation that would allow new leaseholds to be banned in England and Wales too (although it hasn't yet gone into effect). The current government has introduced a bill which will eventually bring the system to an end altogether.

As you might expect, there's huge opposition to these reforms from vested interests who are using every trick in the book to delay them. Getting rid of the hereditary peers from the House of Lords can only improve matters.

[ForHackernews]

Same thing landlords have done forever: Collect rents on their capital.

[telesilla]

Because 150 years ago the labour to keep the estate running was very cheap. Now that labour is expensive, it costs more in maintenance than the property is worth, unless it's highly productive land. Reminds me of the joke, how to make a thousand dollars: buy a million dollar boat.

[Ekaros]

On other side my guess is also that net labour productivity of land has dropped significantly. What I mean that same amount of farm land does not produce same amount of excess labour buying power. So even if productivity itself for farming has risen massively. The amount of labour that you can buy with produced production has plummeted.

[theshrike79]

Downton Abbey played on this, they had to let people film a movie in their home just so that they could afford to fix the leaky roof =)