Business Rate Supplements Bill

Yet. I was going to say that the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, was a third, but I mean the first; he is indeed here, and I would be the third. I am also a former London borough councillor and member of the Greater London Authority, with the consequent loyalties to both those areas that one retains; and am director of a charity, the Rose Theatre in Kingston, which is a business paying business rates. I should say to the noble Lord, Lord Bates, that I will start by being negative, but I shall end by being positive; that is probably the right way round. I do not see how the amendment would operate. What is sufficient income? That seems quite a subjective phrase. Is it sufficient in an account dealing just with the BRS project, or overall? It could be interpreted in a number of ways. I am not sure what "local income" means in this context. I realised that there was a typo in the amendment; I just assumed that the word should not have been there at all so that we were talking about "sufficient income". If it should be "sufficient local income", I have to say that local authorities do not have that much local income; the amount has varied over the years. We on these Benches say that what is raised locally is not enough, the balance is all wrong, and so on, but I will not embark down the policy road. I am unclear how the two words would affect the noble Lord’s objective. The noble Lord is right to raise the issue. I had assumed that Clause 10 covered a variation in the amount of business rate supplements, and that it could be varied up or down. There certainly needs to be a mechanism to reduce BRS during a project if it turns out to be less expensive than had been thought or circumstances change. Schedule 2 provides for credits and refunds, but only at the end of the project. I recall seeing somewhere in the debates in the Commons that the Minister, Mr Healey, said that refunds were provided for, but I cannot see where. I look forward to exploring how we can achieve something, even if I do not quite go along with this amendment.