Rating (Empty Properties) Bill

I read the shameful piece of spin for which the Minister was responsible when he managed to get his particular gloss or varnish on the legislation into the Evening Standard, whose normally Olympian standards of objectivity buckled on that occasion. That is a tribute to the Minister’s guile rather than to the quality of the measure. One of the Government’s principal justifications for the measure is that it will encourage the more efficient use of land and promote the regeneration of run-down areas.