Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill

My hon. Friend, with his huge knowledge of such matters, is right. The Government are having to produce a special planning grant to try to encourage local authorities, such as mine, that are extremely short of staff due to high housing costs to employ planning officers. The same would apply for valuation officers in the listing authorities. Of course, as has rightly been suggested, the solution would be to employ the private sector to do the work. There would then be no need for a permanent overhead. The amendment is premature. It contains many good intentions, as is always the case with proposals made by my hon. Friend the Member for Mole Valley. However, we should wait for Sir Michael Lyons to make his report and reconsider the amendment in due course.