Business Rate Supplements Bill

I am going on, I am afraid. There is a temptation, which people have foreseen, that the Government may say to local authorities, "We are not going to pay for that project. You pay for it out of the business rate supplement". I shall give you an example. When the congestion charge was introduced under the Greater London Authority Act 1999, an estimate was made of the likely income that the charge would gather. Then—surprise, surprise—the very next year, the central government grant to Transport for London was reduced by almost exactly that amount. This is one of the worries. I ask the question again: will the Minister guarantee that government spending or government grants will be in no way reduced because of the ability of local authorities to raise business supplement relief?