Rating (Empty Properties) Bill

My right hon. Friend makes a good point. Amendment No. 6 deals with exemptions, which would affect the amount of money raised by the provisions. Money will therefore be a key part of the debate on the amendment. There is no doubt that the Bill has been introduced relatively quickly. As I said earlier, the Barker review, the Lyons inquiry and the Budget all contributed to it, but there has not been full and proper consultation. That is regrettable. As we go on to explore amendment No. 6 in more detail, we shall see that the Bill will affect a wide range of individuals. A consultation process would have benefited the Government and, certainly, the Opposition. It would also have created much more awareness of the legislative agenda in Parliament. Sometimes people do not appreciate what measures are going through the House until they become law, and they do not therefore have the opportunity to influence Government and Opposition Members when we are framing legislation. The amendment is about exemptions. It is a pity that there has not been widespread consultation, because it means that we might not have sufficient information on the bits and pieces that we are debating today and cannot fully appreciate how strongly people feel about these topics. As I said in my opening remarks, £1 billion is a lot of money, and has a big impact on businesses and our constituents. It is therefore a pity that the consultation has not been fuller. Although the Bill is short, with essentially one clause, its schedules also cause concern, especially given that the Government are going to change some of the ways in which property has historically been valued. With regard to paragraph 4 of schedule 1, concern has been expressed that people might do things to their property to try to avoid the business rate. As a result, the CBI, the British Property Federation and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors have raised concerns about definitions and how that aspect of the Bill will be implemented. As we are dealing with a fairly short Bill in a short time span and without full consultation, many questions remain unanswered. The Minister has a great opportunity today to set out more fully how the provisions will operate, especially paragraph 4 of schedule 1. Will properties that have been flooded, burned down or bombed be affected by the definitions? If a firm moves out of a property, and a roof or wall must be taken down to extract machinery to move it elsewhere or to put it up for sale, will that be caught by the scope of paragraph 4? That point will be of great concern to people up and down the land. RICS has said:"““The Government attempts to deal with the deliberate vandalising of property by introducing Paragraph 4 Schedule 1 of the Bill which disregards changes in the state of a property. RCIS is concerned that this clause fundamentally changes the basis for rating valuations, rather than simply preventing ""deliberate vandalism of empty property. It is a long established principle that rating valuation is based on the actual property to be rated and the property must be valued as it is.””" I hope that the Minister will acknowledge the need to sort out those concerns. Within the narrow scope of the amendments and the limited time for debate, we have an opportunity today to explore some of the issues and get things on the record from him. RICS continued:"““This throws up a range of potential issues to do with the removal of plant and machinery or the removal of a tenant’s changes to a building after the lease has expired. It would appear that under the proposals it would be acceptable for a tenant to take these actions while the property was occupied but would be unacceptable once it becomes vacant.””" That is a key point. It went on:"““Individuals could potentially be penalised for not doing something which becomes a particular concern when the occupier is in financial difficulty. This part of the Bill is likely to lead to increased litigation and an increase in the number of appeals to Valuation Tribunals.””" RICS is particularly exercised about that part of the Bill. Amendment No. 6 was crafted and tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove), who will join our deliberations a little later. It is important to get the proposed exemptions and, in that regard, we have a concern. I have a lot of time for the Minister; we have served in Committees for many happy hours together.