Rating (Empty Properties) Bill

That is indeed something we have looked at—it was a concern that was expressed to me and on which we have already begun to act. From April this year—we are not waiting for the Bill’s reforms to come in next year—we introduced a business premises renovation allowance, which may be of interest to my hon. Friend. He may have missed my saying earlier that we are consulting on future tax incentives that can help the redevelopment of brownfield land. May I correct one common concern, namely, that the Bill has something to do with the business rate as a tax? Empty property in the UK has been rated in the UK for tax for well over 40 years. As Michael Lyons made clear, business rates are a tax on property capable of occupation. The Government are not intending to bring new property into the rating system; rather, we are looking at the level and duration of the reliefs that are offered to property when it becomes empty. In the past, a minority of firms decided that deliberate dereliction was preferable to paying empty property rates. The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government will be publishing next month a consultation on the secondary legislative provisions in this Bill, in which the Government will ask for industry's comments and those of wider groups on a package of potential anti-avoidance measures to deal with such risks. However, I want to be clear that it is not the Government's intention to penalise legitimate development activities that lead to properties being removed from the rating list. On regeneration, it is true—as my hon. Friend the Member for Edmonton (Mr. Love) said—that the Bill has been criticised as a barrier to regeneration and redevelopment. The principal flaw with this argument is that those who make it have looked at the Bill, but not beyond it to the parallel reforms to the system. A list was published by the DCLG of the top 10 local authorities where property is sitting empty. With the exception of three—Hyndburn, Sandwell and Wolverhampton—the other seven with the highest level of vacancy rates claiming empty property relief are in London, the Thames Valley and the city centres of Manchester and Birmingham. Those are not areas where the demand for land is weak or where there is an excess or supply. All, of course, are areas with high property values, hence the £60 million of empty property relief costs to property in the City. For areas where demand is low—for example, wards across Hyndburn, Sandwell and Wolverhampton, as well as for wards across all of the assisted areas in the country—we have introduced a new 100 per cent. capital allowance for the renovation of empty commercial property from April this year. The business premises renovation allowance is available now, a year in advance of the reforms proposed by the Bill. We are ready to go further. I have mentioned the consultation on the future of tax incentives for the redevelopment of brownfield land, which proposes an extension of the 150 per cent. allowance provided for the remediation of contaminated sites to cover long-term derelict land and property, as well as biological problems such as Japanese Knotweed.