Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill

Thank you for your protection, Madam Deputy Speaker. Amendment No. 3 is simple, but there is a debate to be had on whether the revaluation should be national—for the whole of England—or whether it can be done bit by bit. The amendment states that"““an order . . . may be made in relation to an individual billing authority, a group of adjoining billing authorities or all billing authorities.””" That seems to leave open several policy options. The Secretary of State may lay before both Houses an order for a national revaluation. Subject to the outcome of the Lyons review, I suspect that the Government will do that at some point. The second option under the amendment moved by my hon. Friend the Member for Mole Valley (Sir Paul Beresford), who is an acknowledged expert on local government, is to do something less than a national revaluation. Within the terms of the amendment, there are several options available in that respect. A regional revaluation would be possible—as we discussed in the Committee, house prices change nationally, regionally and sub-regionally—so that revaluation took place bit by bit. In effect, we have already had a regional revaluation in Wales. Some of the concerns expressed by my hon. Friends arise from the consequences of that revaluation. Revaluation county by county would also be possible: in a large county such as Hampshire, one could get the agreement of all the billing authorities—the districts and boroughs—and produce a revaluation on that basis. It would also be possible on the micro-level, with revaluation only within a district or borough area. Implicit in the amendment are major policy decisions on how to proceed, because council tax is one part of a jigsaw comprising council tax, unified business rate and the Government grant structure. Historically, both Conservative and Labour Governments have set a grant structure once they know what local billing authorities are collecting through council tax and the unified business rate, and various forms of redistribution go on. Members are often unhappy with the grant their area gets from central Government—it is a common theme. I have never heard an hon. Member say, ““My local authority has more than sufficient grant,”” and it has been argued that the way in which grant is distributed ought to be revisited. A national revaluation, as the Government propose, leaves open the possibility of moving resources between regions and councils, which makes it the logical thing to do from a national policy perspective. My concern about the amendment is that revaluing bit by bit will prevent us from seeing the national picture and making judgments on needs and on particular areas.