Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill

Thank you for that guidance, Madam Deputy Speaker. I shall try, with your guidance in mind, to answer the question by relating it to the revaluation and the Lyons review of local government functions and finance. The reason for the delay is that, if we want to comply with those principles—I share some of my hon. Friend’s fears—the council tax, which was set up in response to the crisis of a Conservative Government, simply will not bear the weight of democracy. We should also remember in considering the revaluation that, although our constituents get very excited about the council tax going up—I understand why and there is some unfairness in the system—I suspect that the Labour party’s communications and propaganda do not make enough of the fact that we are still paying 2.5 percentage points of our VAT more than we were paying before 1993 to pay for the mess of the poll tax previously. I use that figure to illustrate the difficulties in using council tax, with its imperfections, as a basic tax to sustain local democracy. People in the streets are not angry that we are paying 17.5 per cent. VAT, rather than 15 per cent., but they are genuinely concerned about council tax because it increases year on year and a bill drops through the door. When Lyons looks at that, people’s perceptions must be taken into account.