Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill

My hon. Friend makes his point well and I share his concern. That is why I have difficulties with the Bill. I can go along with the Bill at all only because we are considering it in the context of what we can do in the long term. I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister will indicate that if we do not move away from the current council tax system, there will be a revaluation at some point, because otherwise the relationship among local people, their local authorities and the Government will become fractured to such an extent that it will no longer make sense. A huge amount of council tax capping has taken place under both Conservative and Labour Governments. There is a strong argument that that should not happen and that if a local authority chooses to tax people into oblivion, the local electorate should be able to deal with that at the ballot box. However, I see such authorities being protected. I had to cope with the then Thatcher Government, and one year I had to deal with £43 million of cuts out of the council tax—