Rating (Empty Properties) Bill

I am most grateful to my right hon. Friend for suggesting that the amendment should have been even longer. That thought occurred to us when we were discussing what to include, but it also occurred to us that, given the shortage of time between Second Reading and Third Reading, it would not be possible to ask all Members of Parliament to list all historic buildings of that kind. We therefore deliberately decided not to include a full list of all such buildings. Some of the buildings that I have mentioned are owned by English Heritage and have been in receipt of lottery grants for large amounts of money to restore them as ruins—not as buildings for business use. Some of them receive visitors and so there is some income to be generated from them, but often they are visitor attractions run by volunteers and do not generate sufficient income adequately to recompense the cost of keeping them going. Adding to the burden placed on such buildings, through additional rating duties, would be most unwelcome and would help to put some of them at risk. It is important that such buildings are exempted from business rates in their entirety. I should have declared an interest in the case of Hopton castle, because I have the distinct privilege of having been appointed patron of the Hopton castle restoration fund. We have succeeded in securing a grant from English Heritage of approaching £1 million to restore the property to a state in which it could be opened to the public. To highlight the difficulty, I should point out that Hopton Castle is in a village. In fact, it is barely a village; it is a collection of houses with, I think, 45 inhabitants. It would be quite impossible for that group of people to maintain the property from their own resources. The rates would represent a considerable cost in the event of their applying to the property. It is important that exemptions for such properties are spelled out in the Bill and subsequently in regulations. Secondly, I want to touch on what happens when properties are empty and the ownership is uncertain or unclaimed—an issue that I raised in an intervention earlier. That will be a relatively rare occurrence, because most properties have a value and most people who have a claim on such property are likely to seek to be identified with it. However, there are properties where, because of the nature of their decay and dilapidation, the cost of acknowledging ownership would be too prohibitive for likely claimants. I hope that the Minister will respond to the suggestion that there are certain categories of property where ownership is uncertain and where business rates should not apply. I can think of an example of a property that, rather like its former occupier, is unloved and unwanted. Nobody is able to pay for its upkeep. I am not seeking in any way to assist the Labour party out of its financial difficulties, but given that the last occupier was the Craven Arms Labour club, which, as far as I am aware, has not existed in my lifetime—and long may that be the case—the property provides the Minister with an interesting example of the problem that I have identified, and I would like him to help us, in the generality, to find a solution. In particular, perhaps he could help the inheritors of the Craven Arms Labour club—Ludlow Labour party, I believe—to get out of their difficulty by exempting them from business rates on unclaimed property.