Pre-Budget Report

Although there is much to be welcomed in my right hon. Friend's statement, his announcement on empty property rates will not save a number of the companies in my constituency—and, I am sure, elsewhere—that are destined to be put out of business by that tax. Pallion Engineering, for example, is due to see an increase in rates from £55,000 to £277,000 in a single leap. That would put it out of business. Did the Chancellor not consider relieving that tax entirely in regeneration areas, as some of us had urged him to do?