Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill

I am grateful to you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I am also grateful for the concession that funds have moved. The hon. Gentleman made my point for me: the Government have diverted funds, and have had political motives for the way in which they have dealt with tax. We fear that a revaluation process in the hands of the Secretary of State will prevent proper parliamentary scrutiny. We fear that the Bill would allow statutory revaluation. Council tax would become a property tax rather than, as was originally intended, a combined property tax and service charge. That leads me to my concern about the principles of any future system of local taxation. The 73-year-old who ended up in prison because she was not willing to pay £53 in council tax said, quite properly—perhaps this should be adopted by many of us as a slogan—““People pay taxes. Bricks and mortar don’t pay taxes.”” The proposed revaluation process will take us towards a property tax. Our legislation should be based on accountability to people rather than property. We should support the amendment, which would prevent revaluation according to political whim.