UK Parliament / Open data

Rating (Empty Properties) Bill

Debate on bills and Committee of the Whole House (HC) on Thursday, 14 June 2007, in the House of Commons, led by Phil Woolas. The answering member was Michael Gove.
Rating (Empty Properties) Bill. Committee stage. Clause 1 debated. Amendment 6 negatived on division (143 votes to 236). Amendment 2 negatived on division (134 votes to 236). Amendment 1 negatived on division (134 votes to 232). Clauses 1, 2 and 3 ordered to stand part of the Bill. Schedules 1 and 2 agreed to. Bill reported without amendment. Third reading debate. Agreed to on question. Passed.

About these Parliamentary proceedings

Reference

461 c897-955 

Session

2006-07

Department

Department for Communities and Local Government

Legislative stage

Committee stage, Third reading and Report stage

Chamber / Committee

House of Commons chamber

Related items

Rating (Empty Properties) Bill. Explanatory Notes Bill 102-EN also published.
Thursday, 10 May 2007
Bills
House of Commons

Proceeding contributions

Robert Syms | 461 c900-1 (Link to this contribution) I can certainly present the amendment in a less specific way. It has been tabled in extremely fine d...
Speaker | 461 c900 (Link to this contribution) Order. It might be easier if the hon. Gentleman just quotes the reference on the amendment paper.

Show all contributions (103)
Robert Syms | 461 c900 (Link to this contribution) I note the Minister’s comment. I remember a famous interview between Sir Robin Day and Sir John Nott...
Greg Knight | 461 c899 (Link to this contribution) Before my hon. Friend turns to the exemptions, may I take him up on his good point about the amount ...
Robert Syms | 461 c897-8 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move amendment No. 6, page 1, line 2, at beginning insert— ‘(1) In section 45(1)(c) of the...
Robert Syms | 461 c899-900 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend makes a good point. Amendment No. 6 deals with exemptions, which would affect...
Robert Syms | 461 c905-6 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend’s intervention shows his experience as both a Member of Parliament and a busine...
Robert Syms | 461 c906 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend makes a good point. The measures are historical in that most of the legislation...
Lord Deben | 461 c906 (Link to this contribution) Has my hon. Friend noticed the importance of proposed new subsection (1D)(b)(iv) in respect of the d...
Robert Syms | 461 c903-4 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend makes a good point, and shows his experience as a Member of this House. Neverth...
Robert Goodwill | 461 c904 (Link to this contribution) The provision concerns not just those who become insolvent but their creditors. After the event, the...
Robert Syms | 461 c904 (Link to this contribution) I have tried, in my inadequate way, to explain the importance of that aspect. My hon. Friend is righ...
Lord Deben | 461 c904 (Link to this contribution) The argument can be taken a stage further. It is already unacceptable that the state insists on bein...
Speaker | 461 c905 (Link to this contribution) Order. I do not think we really need a history of the progress of the 1986 Act, although it is relev...
Robert Syms | 461 c905 (Link to this contribution) Thank you for your guidance, Mrs. Heal. I think it important to include as much information as pos...
Greg Knight | 461 c905 (Link to this contribution) So far my hon. Friend has taken me with him, and I am minded to support the amendment. I agree that ...
Greg Knight | 461 c903 (Link to this contribution) Surely in the example given one would not need to exempt a property specifically if the ownership is...
Robert Syms | 461 c903 (Link to this contribution) We all know that a number of buildings are in a state of disrepair and would fall under the Planning...
Greg Knight | 461 c901 (Link to this contribution) I was critical of my hon. Friend for drafting paragraph (a) too narrowly, because three months is in...
Robert Syms | 461 c902 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend makes an extremely good point. We have drafted the amendment on the basis of ex...
Greg Knight | 461 c901 (Link to this contribution) What is magic about the period of three months? I envisage a situation in which a family have an uno...
Robert Syms | 461 c901 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend makes a good point. Some of the legislation goes back many years. More recently...
Philip Dunne | 461 c902 (Link to this contribution) I do not want to interrupt my hon. Friend’s flow, but will he clarify whether a particular example w...
Speaker | 461 c902 (Link to this contribution) Order. I remind the hon. Gentleman that interventions should be brief. Perhaps he could come to the ...
Robert Goodwill | 461 c902 (Link to this contribution) Will my hon. Friend confirm that although agricultural buildings are not rated under the business ra...
Robert Syms | 461 c902 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes an important point. Substantial changes have been made to the position of agric...
Philip Dunne | 461 c902 (Link to this contribution) With great pleasure, Mrs. Heal. I apologise for extending my example. To conclude, the building in q...
Lord Deben | 461 c909 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend is right to give that example. At the opposite end of the spectrum, if there is...
Greg Knight | 461 c909 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend share my view that (1A)(b) is too widely drawn? I shall give him an exampl...
Lord Deben | 461 c908 (Link to this contribution) I rise to speak on two principles. I am very much on the Government’s side on the rating of empty bu...
Speaker | 461 c908 (Link to this contribution) Order. I hope that the right hon. Gentleman will now address his remarks to the amendment. I have al...
Greg Knight | 461 c906 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is making a good argument. In view of his expertise in this area, which he outlined a...
Robert Syms | 461 c907 (Link to this contribution) A startlingly large number of issues and subjects could be raised as relevant to the amendment. Ever...
Michael Gove | 461 c909-10 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend’s excellent speech is dealing in detail and authority with the amendment’s prop...
Philip Dunne | 461 c913-4 (Link to this contribution) I support the amendments and I am particularly grateful to my right hon. Friend the Member for Suffo...
Lord Deben | 461 c911-3 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend makes a sensible point, but I am worried about the fact that some people may us...
Greg Knight | 461 c911 (Link to this contribution) I am not sure that the proposal is all that open ended, as it states that"““the owner is entitled to...
Phil Woolas | 461 c910 (Link to this contribution) I sympathise with the right hon. Gentleman, and remind him that the word no longer means what it did...
Lord Deben | 461 c910 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right. The matter is important for a second reason, which is that historic buildin...
Michael Gove | 461 c910 (Link to this contribution) Thank you, Mrs. Heal. Does my right hon. Friend agree that, when we are considering empty properties...
Speaker | 461 c910 (Link to this contribution) Order. The hon. Gentleman knows that interventions should be brief. Will he please conclude his rema...
Phil Woolas | 461 c914 (Link to this contribution) The purpose of the Bill is to change the period; exempt properties are covered by regulations.
Michael Gove | 461 c936 (Link to this contribution) I note the gracious way in which the Minister has acknowledged that consultation will take place on ...
Michael Gove | 461 c935 (Link to this contribution) The Minister is indeed not daft, but he is unnecessarily evasive. As he kindly acknowledged, the ame...
Michael Gove | 461 c934 (Link to this contribution) Sir Alan, if I have made my point in a way that is satisfactory to, and understood by, the Chair, I ...
Phil Woolas | 461 c934-5 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful for that direction from the Chair, Sir Alan, although I was waiting to hear how amendm...
Michael Gove | 461 c929-34 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the Minister for taking that opportunity to clarify the position. I knew that he me...
Speaker | 461 c934 (Link to this contribution) Order. The hon. Gentleman’s peroration is becoming exceedingly repetitive. He has perhaps made his p...
Michael Gove | 461 c928-9 (Link to this contribution) Thank you, Sir Alan, for your helpful advice. The reason why Treasury Ministers spoke was not any l...
Speaker | 461 c927 (Link to this contribution) Order. I might equally say heaven forfend that the hon. Gentleman move into more general territory t...
Speaker | 461 c925 (Link to this contribution) With this it will be convenient to discuss the following amendments: No. 3, page 1, line 9, after ‘(...
Michael Gove | 461 c925-7 (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Alan. I thank you for the advice that you and...
Greg Knight | 461 c921 (Link to this contribution) On that very point, because is it not the key to the whole debate? If the exemptions were locked int...
Phil Woolas | 461 c921 (Link to this contribution) Indeed, the matter did come up—I had forgotten. There is no intention in the Bill to change policy o...
Phil Woolas | 461 c921 (Link to this contribution) Is it on the point that we are discussing?
Phil Woolas | 461 c920 (Link to this contribution) I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on the ingenuity of that point. I do not know whether he has just ...
Michael Gove | 461 c920 (Link to this contribution) The Minister is making an interesting case. He argues that it would be wrong to include exemptions i...
Phil Woolas | 461 c918-20 (Link to this contribution) I congratulate the hon. Member for Poole (Mr. Syms) on tabling an amendment that prompted such a com...
Robert Goodwill | 461 c920 (Link to this contribution) Will the Minister clarify the position of cemeteries? As someone in that line of business, I know th...
Phil Woolas | 461 c921 (Link to this contribution) The first question is on a point of logic and the second makes an important point. The exemptions re...
Phil Woolas | 461 c920 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman makes a good point and I congratulate him on spotting it. He is right. The answer...
Lord Deben | 461 c921 (Link to this contribution) If the exemption is already in primary legislation, why does the Minister have to include it in prim...
Greg Knight | 461 c917-8 (Link to this contribution) That is absolutely right; I agree with my right hon. Friend, and it is right and proper that we cons...
Vincent Cable | 461 c918 (Link to this contribution) I had not intended to speak in this debate, and I certainly do not intend to do so for as long as so...
Philip Dunne | 461 c914 (Link to this contribution) As so often, my right hon. Friend makes his point clearly. I want to discuss two aspects of the ame...
Greg Knight | 461 c914 (Link to this contribution) I hesitate to venture a small criticism of my hon. Friend, but if he is concerned about those castle...
Philip Dunne | 461 c915 (Link to this contribution) I am most grateful to my right hon. Friend for suggesting that the amendment should have been even l...
Greg Knight | 461 c916 (Link to this contribution) I do not really need to declare an interest, unlike my hon. Friend the Member for Poole (Mr. Syms), ...
Speaker | 461 c916 (Link to this contribution) Order. It pains me to have to tell the right hon. Gentleman that I do not agree with his assessment ...
Greg Knight | 461 c916 (Link to this contribution) I do, of course, accept your assessment, Sir Alan. I was making the point, en passant, that the Gove...
Speaker | 461 c916 (Link to this contribution) Well, let us pass quickly on from that point, then.
Greg Knight | 461 c916 (Link to this contribution) Amendment No. 6 has my support, imperfections and all. I am surprised that the Minister has not yet ...
Philip Dunne | 461 c914 (Link to this contribution) That may be so, but why should not the exemptions be clearly set out in the Bill, as we propose in t...
Lord Deben | 461 c914 (Link to this contribution) The Minister is being naive. If we change the time, the way in which the legislation will affect the...
Michael Gove | 461 c950 (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to take part in the Third Reading debate, as it was to take part in the Ways and Me...
Speaker | 461 c950 (Link to this contribution) Order. I know that the hon. Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove) has been led slightly astray by t...
Michael Gove | 461 c950-1 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful for that guidance, Sir Michael. I was simply directed by the knowledge that the Minist...
Vincent Cable | 461 c953-5 (Link to this contribution) I should like to develop some of the comments that I made in the Ways and Means debate, which were c...
Michael Gove | 461 c951-3 (Link to this contribution) And the Evening Standard. The Minister sought to convince us that because the FSB had supported a ch...
Michael Gove | 461 c938 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the Minister for making his case, but he invites us to take on trust his assurances...
Phil Woolas | 461 c936-8 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman raises a fair point. I shall come to that. I shall deal first with the reason wh...
Robert Syms | 461 c941-2 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move amendment No. 1,  page 2, line 22, at end insert—
Michael Gove | 461 c938 (Link to this contribution) That is merely a variation of the argument that the Minister powerfully deployed against amendments ...
Phil Woolas | 461 c938 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for accepting that we agree about the purpose that we are trying...
Phil Woolas | 461 c947-50 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move, That the Bill be now read the Third time. In earlier debates on this Bill, my hon. F...
Robert Syms | 461 c944 (Link to this contribution) I thank the Minister for the way in which he responded to the debate. The problem is that when certa...
Phil Woolas | 461 c943-4 (Link to this contribution) I do not think that there would be examples of people wilfully keeping premises empty, but I can env...
Michael Gove | 461 c943 (Link to this contribution) I might have misheard but, in trying to follow the Minister’s logic, I fear that I might have misund...
Phil Woolas | 461 c935-6 (Link to this contribution) If the hon. Gentleman listens to the whole argument, he will find that I answer that point. First, h...
Lord Deben | 461 c916-7 (Link to this contribution) So that the Minister cannot say it, let me make the point that the exemptions may, of course, be add...
Lord Deben | 461 c910-1 (Link to this contribution) The Minister is right, but I bet strongly that neither of us could define precisely what it means to...
Phil Woolas | 461 c929 (Link to this contribution) It could have been my Lancastrian hearing. I did mishear the hon. Gentleman and thought that he had ...
Robert Syms | 461 c904-5 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend makes an important point. There is concern about the impact of that arrangement...
Phil Woolas | 461 c921-2 (Link to this contribution) I would have to come to a judgment on that. The flexibility exists for local authorities to go furth...
Robert Syms | 461 c922 (Link to this contribution) We have debated a detailed and wide-ranging amendment, covering subjects as broad as castles, histor...
Michael Gove | 461 c925 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move amendment No. 2, page 1, line 5, leave out ‘subsection (4A)’ and insert subsections (4...
Phil Woolas | 461 c942-3 (Link to this contribution) I appreciate the motive behind the hon. Gentleman’s amendment. I readily confess that my argument is...
Lord Deben | 461 c908-9 (Link to this contribution) I will do my best to—indeed I will have to—follow your guidance. I shall turn specifically to illust...

Subjects

Clubs
Charities
Ancient monuments
Building alterations
Cemeteries
Derelict land
Archaeological sites
Community centres
Bombs
Electricity generation
Empty property
Exemptions
Farms
Industry
Insolvency
Land use
Floods
Fires
Planning permission
Local government finance
Rates and rating
Business rates
Listed buildings
Microgeneration
Small businesses
Tax allowances
Sports
Tenants
Rents
Regeneration
Vandalism
Local Government Finance Funding Changes Independent Inquiry
Land Use Planning Review

Legislation

Rating (Empty Properties) Bill 2006-07
Non-domestic Rating (Unoccupied Property) Regulations 1989

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Parliamentary proceeding on www.publications.parliament.uk
Back to top