Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill

No, I am about to finish. It is rather like asking a vegetarian whether they would prefer steak or bacon. The Bill should be withdrawn and replaced with something sensible that tackles the system of local government finance. The Government will not do that, but we will, when we win in 2009. So while we wait for the power to introduce something different, we see no point in having a revaluation. It would be a costly waste of money; as we have heard, £60 million has been wasted on it already. It would be a total waste of time, given that we intend, when we are in government, to scrap the tax anyway and replace it with local income tax. I shall not go though all of the arguments again, because we have heard how much better a local income tax would be. We have heard also that we would localise business rates and make sure that local government has a proper system of finance. Even if hon. Members disagree with me about local income tax, they should agree that this whole revaluation fiasco is merely an excuse to defer once again the crucial question of a decent financial settlement for local government. Transforming local finance is key to transforming public services. We should not waste our energy fighting over revaluation just because it is an easy political game. We should invest our energies in solving the real problems: that the council tax is unfair, and that local government is held to ransom by the current funding system. Every minute that we fritter away on revaluation is a minute that we do not spend trying to solve those underlying problems. So I think that I had better shut up and sit down.