Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill

I shall try to be brief. The hon. Member for Southampton, Test (Dr. Whitehead) made some excellent points, which were relevant to our own stance. Our stance is that we do not want to proceed with the revaluation, but my hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke (Mrs. Miller) produced a twist on that. Our election manifesto focused largely on pensioners and old people. Conservative Members feel that re-banding, particularly for pensioners, is an extremely blunt instrument. Many pensioners are asset-rich. They have sat in their houses for 20, 25 or 30 years and, often unbeknown to them, the asset value has increased. Unfortunately, however, those pensioners are also cash-poor. They are stuck in a difficult position. I fear that the re-banding will force many of them to move from the homes in which they have lived throughout their lives. We need to deal with that structural conundrum, which is why I oppose any re-banding at any time. Let me deal with what was said by the hon. Member for Colne Valley (Kali Mountford) by quoting from a press release sent on 20 December by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. It announced that the Government intended to suspend the council tax revaluation and extend the scope of Sir Michael Lyons’ inquiry, and stated"““The additional work which Sir Michael will undertake will add value to the Government’s own current work on a strategic view of the role and functions of local government, under its local vision programme.””" I am sure that many Opposition Members cannot but agree that council tax increases since 1997 of up to 94 per cent. in my constituency are more an example of double-vision than local vision. I go back to my original point. I was lucky enough to be approached by the IsItFair campaign. Last Wednesday, I had an opportunity to present to the House the campaign’s petition. The concern of that campaign and the Braintree Pensioners Action Group is not simply that the current system is unfair because of the way it affects pensioners in particular, but that they face a double whammy: re-banding would hurt many pensioners tremendously and ultimately force many of them to move home.