Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill

I understand the hon. Gentleman’s point and assume that that is why the amendment provides for groups of billing authorities. If he will allow me to stick with my argument for a moment longer, I hope that he will understand why the amendment is not workable. The hon. Gentleman argued that such small-scale revaluations could help with the costs of revaluation, which the hon. Member for Christchurch (Mr. Chope) also mentioned. Taken in isolation, he is, of course, right, but taken in aggregate, across all the many different revaluations that could ensue, I believe that he is mistaken. There is a widely accepted theory that economies come from scale. Under national revaluation, even with the automated valuation model, that is still the case. The VOA could gear up to deliver one national revaluation and would calibrate its software with one valuation date in mind in such an event before revaluing in one concentrated effort.