Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill

I am sorry, Madam Deputy Speaker. I was looking at my hon. Friend the Member for Mole Valley to try to emphasise my point. The Secretary of State could, for some arbitrary reason, decide to impose a revaluation on a local authority or group of local authorities that are adjoining rather than comparable—as my right hon. Friend the Member for East Yorkshire (Mr. Knight) pointed out—and there might be some suspicion that that was being done for an open, or perhaps less open, political reason. If there were two separate amendments—the first to make the same provision as amendment No. 3 and the second to provide that the power could be exercised only in response to a request from the bottom, so that it could be effected only when a group of local authorities had got together to make that request—I would have more sympathy with the aim of my hon. Friend the Member for Mole Valley. In those circumstances, the Secretary of State could grant a revaluation only when there was clear evidence that the local authority or authorities had made the request.