Landbank

Originally a Land Bank was a bank which issued long-term loans on real estate. It does still mean that and there are plenty of Land Banks around, but more recently the term has also come to refer to the holding of parcels of land for future use.

This has hit the news in Britain most often regarding Tescos supermarkets, and is the cause of some controversy. The suggestion is that the large supermarkets are buying up land which could be locations for stores, often without developing them. One accusation is that a supermarket will buy up suitable land near their own stores so that nobody else can open in competition with them.

The whole issue of the morality of large supermarket companies is complex and wide-ranging but one thing is certain - land bank would be a great name for a band!

Landbank would have to be a band in the Radiohead or Coldplay mould, known as much for their opinions on big business, globalisation and poverty as for their music, which would be rock but not heavy.