Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill

I understand the hon. Gentleman’s point. I believe that the provision to require the Secretary of State on the appropriate occasion to justify his or her decision or proposal to the House is sufficient. I stress that I studied the points that he made in Committee after that debate and that I understand them, but I believe that the amendment would inevitably lead people to conclude that there must be a golden rule. Revaluation is not simply about reflecting divergence in prices across the property market. The case for revaluation is simply to ensure that property values are fairly reflected in council tax bandings and that values are up-to-date and can be sensibly handled by the Valuation Office Agency and other interested parties. Above all, we are interested in fairness but it does not depend on passing some sort of arbitrary test on the level of divergence. Indeed, if the focus were to be too heavily weighted towards divergence as the overriding factor predicating a revaluation, according to the amendment, a virtual annual revaluation of all properties would have to take place in order to assess divergence. I agree with the hon. Member for Upminster (Angela Watkinson) about the resources implications. The assessment would have to consider not only the national but the regional and local picture to reflect the fact that divergence can and does happen, and has an impact at the micro level—the billing authority level—as well as regionally and nationally. I have no doubt that many individual householders would be tempted by the process to enter into some sort of annual debate about whether the Government should revalue that particular year according to whether they would win or lose—the hon. Gentleman mentioned winners and losers—by that specific set of figures. That would not offer any prospect of a sound basis on which to make the important decision of when to revalue. The right way forward is for the Government, in the light of the Lyons inquiry and our response to that, to propose and justify a date for revaluation to Parliament, and for Parliament to consider the merits of the date and the justification by the process of debating the affirmative order for which the Bill provides. On that basis, I ask hon. Members to oppose the amendment if the hon. Gentleman pushes it to a Division.