Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

My Lords, the noble Earl, Lord Attlee, was absolutely right: we had a very good debate last Wednesday and we put many things on the record. I am happy to reiterate our concern today, without going into any detail, about the predicament of some businesses faced with unexpectedly large backdated bills. I went into some detail about the history of that and why it was such an unfortunate occurrence, coinciding with the downturn and so on. I recognise the anxiety in the House and I recognise that the non-fatal Motion was lost by the Government. I put the same Statement into Hansard today, recognising and respecting the response of the House but reiterating, as I said in the debate, that we had gone as far as we could within the limits of the law because we could not waive tax liability—no Minister could. I am grateful to the noble Earl for not rehearsing that today. Facts concerning tax liabilities that are now known cannot simply be disregarded, as he will understand, and of course port occupiers are not alone in having backdated liabilities as a result of ensuring that the ratings list is accurate and up-to-date. We know that some businesses may struggle with significant and unexpected bills for more than 33 months from 1 April 2005 and that is why we have come forward with the new regulations which give businesses more time to pay those liabilities in certain circumstances. Under those regulations, businesses facing such bills will not be required to pay their backdated liability within the current financial year. Instead, the new legislation will give qualifying businesses the facility to pay their back-dated liability for previous years in equal interest-free instalments over eight years. As I told the House last week, that is absolutely unprecedented and it has been welcomed. We think it will help about 1,500 properties a year across England, within and outside ports, and will give help with cash flow problems faced by some companies. On the specific question posed by the noble Earl, my advice is that bills can be sent out any time now. Local authorities will have to issue demands and bills now because there is no reason not to bill and payment of bills is due 14 days from the issue of the due bill. The schedule of payments, as agreed with the local authorities, would be eight equal instalments, if a company falls into that situation. That is what will happen. The point raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, is pertinent. I was happy to put on the record the situation about insolvency, as it is important information, so that people would not feel that immediately they receive those bills on their balance sheets they will be bound to be declared insolvent. The point made by the noble Baroness about making it clear to the banks and to the lenders that that is the position is very important. I said in the debate that we would look for ways to ensure that that information was held by local authorities and that we will seek to put it on websites and so on. Bearing in mind what she said, let me think about how we can ensure that that information goes to the lenders as well. The debate on the issue has raised considerable public interest and a letter sent from both Stephen Timms and John Healey to the Treasury Select Committee received a fair degree of publicity. Nevertheless, we should ensure that we make as much of it is possible. I must address the amendment before us. Obviously we do not think that the specific amendment in this context would be appropriate. We do not agree that matters that should be addressed in local economic assessments should be placed on the face of the Bill because it is up to local areas to determine what is relevant in terms of their economic assessment and how it is best deployed. It would also unnecessarily constrain local authorities and make it more difficult to respond to changing economic priorities. Local authorities should be free to determine what to include in their assessments, taking account of local priorities. I am grateful for the opportunity to reaffirm what I said and to add further information about port businesses that are affected by the situation described on Wednesday in the debate on the Motion.