Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill

I apologise for my hon. Friend tempting me to stray, Mr. Deputy Speaker, although I would just say, in obeying your instruction, that he is absolutely right. We heard several good speeches on Report. My right hon. Friend the Member for Suffolk, Coastal (Mr. Gummer) made a thoughtful speech in which he raised the possibility of voluntary revaluation in certain limited geographical areas if residents wanted to be revalued for some pressing local reason. He did not give his argument a name, but I would characterise it as revaluation by consent. During the debate on the amendment tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Mole Valley (Sir Paul Beresford), we discussed whether, if we do eventually revalue at some point in the future, there would be any merit in running pilot revaluations in a few parts of the country to test the effects. I cannot imagine that many areas would rush forward to volunteer for that. Nevertheless, I suggest to the Minister that there might be some merit in doing it, not least to try to persuade people that the system is not bent. Whatever the Government were trying to do, a lot of the resistance arose because, given what had happened in Wales and with the grant shift, many people genuinely felt that the revaluation would not be fair. I think that the Minister would privately concede that. I make this as an entirely non-partisan suggestion. Local government finance is the 21st century equivalent of the Schleswig-Holstein question. We have to come up with a grant formula that everyone can agree is equitable. Some people liked SSA and did not like FSS; some liked FSS and did not like SSA. It has been argued that some authorities needed more help with the process. I hope that the Lyons review will come up with an equitable formula, but if it is unable to do so, I hope and trust that an incoming Conservative Government will solve the problem.