Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill

I accept your reprimand, Mr. Deputy Speaker. The hon. Gentleman makes an excellent point on capital and how one may deal with the capital asset of one’s house, but the primary desire of many of the pensioners to whom I have spoken is to avoid moving from their house and into a care home. I hope that the Government will reconsider the issue, because elderly people feel comfortable in familiar surroundings. Care homes are not necessarily, as we all understand, familiar surroundings. As I have said, re-banding pensioners’ houses is a blunt instrument and will hurt many of the elderly in our country.