Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill

I take your guidance, Mr. Deputy Speaker. People’s perception of council tax is important to deciding what we do about revaluation and banding. As Labour Front Benchers have said, deferring a decision about revaluation perhaps affords an opportunity to provide a wider context in a review of council tax revaluation and a wider debate about the purpose of local government. The right hon. Member for Skipton and Ripon (Mr. Curry), who is unfortunately not in his place, made a thoughtful contribution. Although he would not put it in the same words, he suggested that there are methods of making council tax work relatively well. He also said, in contradistinction to Conservative Front-Bench Members, that that would entail revaluation. He said that several other things could be done to make council tax revaluation part of the process rather than, as several hon. Members have described it, an apparent obstacle to it. Governments throughout history have been concerned with the effect on the winners and the losers of revaluation and have thought long and hard about the subject. The right hon. Member for Skipton and Ripon asked whether other things could be done to place the workings of council tax generally in the context of revaluation. Several ideas could be considered and I hope that, if the Bill is passed, my hon. Friends on the Front Bench will examine them in the context of the extended Lyons review, alongside revaluation.