Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill

This obviously essential debate has raised many subjects, and I should like to touch on a few of them in my brief contribution. I made a note that we have talked about local accountability and flexibility, the relative costs of different approaches, the impact of local developments, whether anomalies could be better corrected nationally or locally, the Valuation Office Agency and the role of the Secretary of State, to say nothing of appeals, which my hon. Friend the Member for Cotswold (Mr. Clifton-Brown) has just mentioned. All are relevant and I shall touch on them as I go through my speech. To set a context, we need to establish the provenance of the matter. That takes us back to the beginning of the debate, when Mr. Speaker very graciously and with enormous efficiency was able to produce the missing Act—if I may call it that: for we started the debate without the very Act on which the whole matter is based. Fortunately, we now have it and I want to ensure that the House understands that the amendment proposed by my hon. Friend the Member for Mole Valley (Sir Paul Beresford) refers to an order under subsection (1A), which in turn refers to the Bill where subsection (1) of clause 1 refers to section 22B of the Local Government Finance Act 1992. That is where we got into immediate difficulty, as we were all wondering how on earth the debate could be properly conducted without the missing Act. It is fair to say that initially we were floundering in a mist, which is unusual for us as we are always clear-eyed and sharp of mind. On this occasion, however, we started at a disadvantage. Mr. Speaker sorted all that. He waved his wand. He exuded and exerted his authority and the Act was quickly to hand.