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

I am so glad that I gave way to the hon. Gentleman, because I was about to discuss the figures. I have placed in the Library of the House today a table of the latest figures relating to the impact of the ports review, broken down by port. The figures show the pre-review and post-review rateable values of the ports and of the businesses, and the number of businesses in each port. They also show that the review has had different impacts in different ports, and that it has had a different impact on the port operators and the port occupiers. The overall impact on the cumulative rateable value of ports in England has been to increase the rateable value from £201 million to £211 million. Within that cumulative impact, however, there have been two main changes. The first is a reduction in the port operators' rateable values. The second is an increase in the number of separately assessed properties. As a result, in England, the port operators' rateable value has been reduced by about £44 million annually, which therefore reduces rates liability. Across England, the rateable value of Associated British Ports alone has reduced from £41 million to £21 million as a result of the ports review. In Hull, the rateable value of the port is now one third of what it was before the review: it was £9 million; it is now £3 million. In Grimsby, that value less than half what it was—down from £1.35 million to £500,000. In Liverpool, it is less than half, too—from £16.5 million to £6.8 million.