Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill

My hon. Friend made that point in the debate. Of course, the answer depends on what happens to house prices. If he is asking whether the Government’s policy is to support a property tax on the basis of valuation, the answer is, of course, yes—unlike the Conservative party’s policy of supporting property tax without a revaluation, which seems wholly untenable. Hon. Members have argued in the debate that there is no need for revaluation. They argue that relative house price movements across the country during the past 10 years are such that the revaluation is unnecessary. They would cancel revaluation, rather than postponing it. However, during the debate of 19 October, when the hon. Member for Upminster (Angela Watkinson) was challenged by my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Attercliffe (Mr. Betts) to say whether the Conservatives would ever revalue, the response was ““we never say never””. We look forward to receiving the Opposition’s support for the Bill when it returns to the House after its consideration in Committee because it provides exactly the kind of flexibility that their policy appears to call for. Finally, I should remind the House that in the past eight years, the Government have provided a 33 per cent. real-terms increase in Government grant, which compares with a 7 per cent. real-terms reduction in the last four years of the previous Government. Last year was the eighth successive year in which the Government provided local government overall with an increase in total Government grant that was above inflation, and it was the third year in which we were able to guarantee increases for all local authorities at least in line with inflation. One would have thought that the Conservative party would be interested in balancing the books, not scaring the pensioners of this country.