Business Rate Supplements Bill

I can be fairly brief as we have established our position on this. We would have great difficulty in supporting an extension beyond the Greater London Authority of levying powers and, therefore, we would not be able to support the first group of amendments. However, if this Bill is to go ahead, Amendment 32 would provide an important safeguard. There ought to be a statement on the governance and management of a project. The noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, referred to her colleague in another place who moved a similar amendment. He stated that it would be a case of constructing a board comprising people drawn from the local authority, businesses and the community, and particularly those who would be paying the business rate supplement. It seems sensible and appropriate to have them on the board. I have some experience of this type of arrangement. In the 1990s, my noble friend Lord Heseltine introduced the concept of City Challenge, which was the same idea except that it brought together the public and private sectors willingly to contribute funds towards the development or regeneration of a given area. As a part of that, City Challenge boards were set up comprising all the various stakeholders. Some of them worked very closely together, which resulted in a load of spin-offs that went way beyond the specific project before them. However, the idea of getting businesses and local authorities around the table talking in the same language and working together is something we would regard as very good practice indeed. We would strongly support any measure that seeks to put that in the Bill.