Business Rate Supplements Bill

My Lords, I, too, thank the Minister for her introduction to the Bill. I should declare two interests. I am one of three Members of your Lordships’ House who are joint presidents of London Councils, the organisation of London boroughs. I am also the trustee of a charity, the Rose Theatre in Kingston, which has a rateable value that is well over the anticipated threshold. It is also in a BID area. The lobbying which I and no doubt other noble Lords have received—I should like, through the medium of Hansard, to thank the organisations that have contacted us—has inevitably had particular regard to the current economic position. I hope that during our debates on the Bill we can take both an immediate and a longer view. Unless a future Mayor of London does a volte-face on Crossrail or the plug is pulled on the project in terms of other funding, this legislation will have to remain on the statute book for many years. I have read that Mayor Johnson has said that because of the length of time required for the Crossrail funding, he does not want the London boroughs themselves to be able to levy a business rate supplement until 2035 at the earliest—a term to which not even Mayor Livingstone aspired.