Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill

My hon. Friend is right. Take-up does not just need to be given prominence on council tax demands; there are many places where we could encourage take-up not just of council tax benefit but of other benefits. He makes a good point, because this Bill has no relevance to those who should not be paying council tax. I agree with him that that is right, but even if we take that out of the equation we still have a responsibility to all those on fixed low incomes who are none the less just outside the remit of benefits and have huge problems. I venture to suggest that people have huge problems under today’s system. Everyone would think from Conservative Members’ speeches that revaluation means only an increase in council tax for everybody concerned. That is not at all the case. As one area goes up in value, another goes down. People on fixed incomes who are just outside council tax benefit rates are suffering disproportionately, and my concern is for those people. We are talking about those who are not wealthy, who live in a property that, as against other properties, has not risen in value at the same rate. Therefore, in terms of property as a proportion of income, those people are much worse off. That seems a good reason for carrying on with revaluation. If we continue with council tax as it is now, we must look carefully at such matters. We cannot escape our responsibility to those people. I shall go along with the Minister for today’s purposes.