Business Rate Supplements Bill

The answer is, in fact, none of those things, as the hon. Lady might have discerned. Crossrail is a project where the funding package was agreed before the delivery of this Bill. There is a political consensus on Crossrail in London because the funding package, including the proposal to levy a supplementary business rate to fund an element of it, was announced back in October 2007 in advance of the last London mayoral elections. It was well debated and well aired in London, where there was a clear consensus of view that it was a desirable way ahead. All the principal candidates in London had stood on the platform of supporting Crossrail and the funding package—certainly the candidates from all three major parties, and I think the Greens as well. First, then, the proposal was well established. Secondly—let us be practical about these things—the deal was done, and unpicking the funding package would put the project at risk, and I do not intend to do anything that would put it at risk. That is a world away from taking a specific done deal, as the Government have done through this Bill instead of enacting a simple Crossrail enabling or financing Bill to deal with that one project and using that as an opportunity to roll out a nationwide project by stealth. That raises the prospect of significant increases in the tax burden on authorities that have nothing to do with Crossrail and are in different circumstances, and where some of the other tests that should apply to ensure that there is sign-up do not as yet apply.