Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill

I am not sure that that answers my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch (Mr. Chope), but we should not get bogged down as it is not the most important aspect that we should consider. In relation to subsection (1C), we must confront the issue of cost, which the Minister raised. If we read the subsection quickly, it does not sound too bad, but its reference to"““the Secretary of State’s assessment of the degree of divergence in relevant property values since the original valuations made under this Act””," gets us into difficult territory. If the exercise is to be meaningful, the information will have to be comprehensive and accurate, and one is immediately confronted with the problem of the mechanism and the cost of doing that because, otherwise, it would be extremely counter-productive. The Minister rightly pointed out that we are talking about national, regional and, I presume, local variations, all of which would have to be covered to make the provision of any use. That cannot be done without cost. It is one thing to wave one’s hand and say that the job can be done with existing staff, but I am not sure that that is the case. Under the amendment, a mandatory annual exercise would require an annual assessment of the degree of divergence in relevant property values—