Rating and Valuation (S.I., 2009, No. 204)

My right hon. Friend is promising to take apart the Opposition's argument, and we shall obviously delight in that, but I would like him to address a point that has come up in a number of debates. The Government have moved their position by saying that people will be able to pay this liability over eight years, but Members on both sides of the House have expressed concern that, if the rate demand is sent out in a single bill—albeit one that is to be paid over eight years—it could result in some companies ceasing to be solvent to continue trading. Does my right hon. Friend have the power to instruct that those bills should not be sent out to a business as a single sum, and that instead, the first bill, for example, could be the first of eight equal parts? In that way, the total amount need not appear on the business's balance sheet, and possibly tip it into insolvency.