My Lords, Amendments 7 and 8 in my name pursue an issue I raised both at Second Reading and in Committee regarding the complete mystery surrounding the £1.5 billion of taxpayers’ money that the Government propose to use as recompense for businesses in removing their rights to appeal their business rates.
This is all very unsatisfactory. The Bill is in its final stages and we do not know, first, the value of the real and estimated claims being made by businesses via material changes of circumstances based on the impact of Covid. The Minister may well claim that there is no information regarding the value of estimated claims, yet that is precisely what the Bill seeks to do. Secondly, we do not know at all whether £1.5 billion will in any way be sufficient to adequately and fairly compensate business for the removal of lawful claims made to the VOA.
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Throughout the course of the Bill’s passage, the Minister has been unable to make a connection between removing the right to appeal the level of business rates using Covid as the reason and the sum of compensation specifically stated in the Bill. This simply will not do.
The Minister has also so far been unable to explain how the £1.5 billion will be disbursed. Perhaps he will be able to provide some answers today.
What is the basis for the estimate of the need for £1.5 billion? Will it be sufficient to cover all legitimate claims? What criteria will be used to judge claims? Will criteria be set by government, or will there be local discretion? Will the funding be distributed to local authorities prior to claims being made and, if so, how will this be done? If the funding runs out and legitimate claims are still in process, will the Government be prepared to increase the funding available?
I know that is a lot of questions, but I have been asking them all right through the process of discussing the Bill. I hope the Minister will be able to provide full answers to them, as I am not prepared to support a Bill that leaves so many fundamental questions unanswered. I look forward to his response.