Rating (Empty Properties) Bill

The Minister is right, but I bet strongly that neither of us could define precisely what it means today, or what it used to mean. That is what makes it such a good legal word. Proposed paragraph (h) is the most controversial in the amendment. I can see what my hon. Friend the Member for Poole is getting at, but want to offer the following example. A person who finds that his Aunt Agatha has died may not have seen her for some time or realised that he was her executor. He might not find it easy to sell her property because she did not do much with it for a long time. Consequently, her nephew has a lot to do, but the probate system takes such a long time that he might easily find himself paying money out of his own income to cover the circumstances. I am at present dealing with a constituent in exactly that situation. There is money in the estate involved, but complications with the will and the nature of the person concerned mean that probate is taking a long time. My constituent therefore has little choice but to meet the financial demands from his own resources. I appreciate what my hon. Friend the Member for Poole is trying to do, but I agree with what my right hon. Friend the Member for East Yorkshire (Mr. Knight) said earlier about drawing proposals more narrowly. Many properties in this country, domestic and otherwise, are owned by people who do not live in Britain. No one could accuse me of being anti-foreigner, but the people living abroad who own those buildings want to hang on to them because their value is rising all the time. They do not want the hassle involved with letting the properties, so they are not rented out. That is bad, and why I said earlier that this is a necessary Bill. If the proposal in the amendment is accepted, we need to be careful about how long the period should be. I can see that it might be longer than what we have at present, but I am unhappy about it being as open ended as it is in the amendment.