The company [Land Heritage (UK)] took £5m from 700 investors in return for small parcels of farmland in Sussex and Lincolnshire. Liquidators Smith & Williamson have told them there is nothing left for creditors. LHUK was one of many "landbankers" who buy farm land at agricultural prices - £5,000 to £10,000 an acre - and split it into small slices, selling each 0.1 acre plot for £10,000 or more. The deal means landbank promoters can make upwards of £100,000 profit per acre without even a whisper of planning consent.

LHUK collapsed after the Financial Services Authority said it was a "collective investment" as the company - and not individual investors - would control planning applications and land sales. Collective investments must be FSA-regulated and LHUK was not authorised. The FSA told it unofficially it could avoid prosecution if it repaid investors. But the cupboard is bare.

(Via Guardian Unlimited. To read the full story, click here)

As more people become aware of the land banking problem the popularity of PropertySCAM continues to grow.

We are interested in hearing from our readers and, in addition to the email link you can see near the bottom left of every page, have enabled reader comments on this PropertySCAM article for the first time.

While email to us is private, any comments you post here will be published instantly and will be visible to every other reader. You can contribute just by clicking the "Comments" link.

Now it's over to you.

• What sort of features would you like to see on PropertySCAM?
• Do you have a land banking story to tell?
• Are you a plot owner, or thinking of becoming one?
• Do you live next to a land banker's plot site?

Do please note that we reserve the right to edit or delete comments that do not contribute positively to the debate on how to stop land banking.

Please note that this is a continuation of the lengthy discussion started in an earlier post with a similar title. New visitors may wish to acquaint themselves with the contents of that post before contributing comments here.

The Government is facing calls to crack down on landbanking firms that scam consumers into buying small plots of land on the promise of high returns that never materialise.

MPs and the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) have launched a campaign to stamp out the practice amid concern that thousands of people have already been ripped off.

(Via Guardian Unlimited. To read the full story, click here)
(See also: CPRE Press Release)
(See also: The great landbanking carve-up)

Greg Mulholland, Liberal Democrat MP for Leeds North West, has tabled an early day motion calling on the government to recognise the seriousness of this problem and the need for a co-ordinated and joined up Government response, involving the Financial Services Authority, Office of Fair Trading and Department for Communities and Local Government.

PropertySCAM would like to encourage MPs of all parties to support this campaign and sign this early day motion.

See the full text of Greg Mulholland's early day motion here.
See also Julie Kirkbride's early day motion of 2004 here.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) is launching a campaign to get the practice of "landbanking" regulated by the government.

There are 29 companies offering plots of land for sale, many of them in or close to green belt land.

The principle is simple. You buy up a piece of agricultural land, divide it into smaller plots, upwards of eighty square metres.

You then sell those plots, often via the internet, to investors, who are told they will get a healthy return when the field is eventually bought up by a developer.

But most of these plots are in areas which local authorities say are unlikely to get planning permission.

(Via BBC News. To read the full story, click here)

A number of media representatives have contacted PropertySCAM to try to contact people involved in Land Banking. If you would be happy to talk to someone about your experiences then please email us at the address at the bottom, left of this site.

• Are you happy with the amount of protection and legislation in place?
• If you have bought land are you satisfied with the information provided?
• If you live near land for sale do you have any concerns and what action, if any, have you taken?

If you are happy to talk to someone from the media please include an email or telephone number. It would also be helpful if you could indicate where in the UK you live and where any land you have purchased is located.

We are grateful to Greg Mulholland, Liberal Democrat MP for Leeds North West, for his permission to publish in full a letter he wrote recently to Nigel Walter, Managing Director of UK Land Investments.