Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill

My hon. Friend has said that we need a system that provides stability, which is a point that I made earlier, and property taxes provide an element of stability. If stability derives from the facts that property is fixed and does not move and that those people who own property owe a responsibility to the community where their property is located, we must make sure that the system properly recognises property values. As long as the system reflects property values and locations and provides stability, we cannot escape the need for revaluation. The Government must return to revaluation at some point, because they cannot escape it for ever. As long as it is politically expedient for Conservative Members to say that delaying revaluation will save people from a huge hike in council tax in the short term, the political danger exists of not protecting those people who would do rather better out of revaluation than has been suggested in tonight’s debate.