Business Rate Supplements Bill

Because in the current circumstances it would be wrong to do so. I will adopt, if the right hon. Gentleman likes, a classically Keynesian argument—when the facts change, I change my opinion; that was the view of John Maynard Keynes. My right hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood) set out the facts very eloquently. It is not realistic, in the current economic climate, to place further tax burdens on businesses save in the most exceptional circumstances. I am prepared to regard Crossrail as an exceptional circumstance because of its national impact and the fact that there has been very significant debate beforehand. That does not apply elsewhere. For the reasons that have been well set out by my right hon. and hon. Friends, the inevitable cost pressures placed on local authorities in the current climate mean that this will be used as an additional form of revenue-raising regardless of the economic needs, and nobody desires that. That is why virtually all the business organisations have real concerns at the roll-out of a nationwide project as opposed to Crossrail. The simple fact is that the world has moved on since it was thought that one could move fairly readily into the type of scheme that we are talking about. Under certain, different circumstances, and if carefully rehearsed, the scheme might be deliverable, but at the moment, if we embarked on a broad roll-out, it would, in our judgment, send exactly the wrong signals for business confidence. In the case of Crossrail, the issues are well rehearsed, and have been dealt with well.