Rating (Empty Properties) Bill

Hon. Members on both sides of the House have made well-informed speeches. They clearly did their research before putting forward their arguments, as was the case in the debate on the Ways and Means resolution. Many of the matters that were raised were points of detail, although some were points of policy and principle. I hope that you will forgive me, Mr. Deputy Speaker, if I am not able to respond to every comment because although a relatively limited number of Members have spoken, many detailed points were made. I start by referring to the opening remarks of my hon. Friend the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, because in much of the debate two policy points have been missed, although this is a Second Reading debate. The first refers to the 1983 White Paper to which my hon. Friend referred. It said that the purpose of the original measure on empty property rates was to reflect the fact that there was a period of recession. Before that, of course, different measures were in place. The arguments that have been put forward today—some based on evidence, others ingenious in their contortions—miss the big picture, which is that the measures were introduced at a time when, as a result of the infamous 1981 Budget, there was deliberate industrial vandalism as a part of macro-economic policy. Secondly, I congratulate the hon. Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove), who is proving an eloquent performer—perhaps ““performer”” is unkind—at the Dispatch Box, but he has adopted the technique of the right hon. Member for West Dorset (Mr. Letwin), who perfected the art of assigning to us a premise to which we do not sign up, and then proceeding to demolish it. The arguments put forward by the hon. Member for Surrey Heath are fascinating, coherent and completely irrelevant to what we are putting forward. No doubt that is entertaining for sketch-writers and colleagues at The Times, but it is of no relevance whatever to the British property market or the measure before us. The fact of the matter is that non-domestic rates in this country are based on rental, not capital, value. If a property has been empty and is in an area of weak demand, the rent for that property will be very low. That is why we base non-domestic rates on rental value, not on capital value. In addition, it was argued that we were introducing the measure because we believe that property developers deliberately build premises and keep them empty. We have not said that—we put forward the measure as an incentive for owners to bring those properties on to the market. We have not hidden from the fact that the measure will raise revenue. I remind the House that if the measure had not concerned local taxation, it would be in the Finance Bill. It was a Budget announcement. Of course, we have followed the correct procedure, but we have not hidden the fact that it is a revenue-raising measure. That takes me back to my previous point, which was made previously in our debate on the Ways and Means resolution.