Business Rate Supplements Bill

I support the amendment and congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Valentine, on having dealt with such a complex subject—the schedule is indeed a complicated document—so briefly and clearly. I want to add just one or two points. The first is that the pressure for owners to be included within the BID system has existed from the beginning. When my Bill, to which I referred in rather intemperate terms on the previous amendment, was introduced, we had amendments to do that. The Government made it clear then that they did not really approve of that but, as they knew that the Bill would not make any progress in the other place, we got owners included in the final version. When what became the Local Government Act 2003 was introduced, it very wisely went through a pre-legislative committee—the Transport, Local Government and the Regions Committee—which reported on this issue. The research paper published by the House of Commons Library stated: ""During the consultation process it was also suggested that property owners, as well as rate payers, should be liable for the levy, and the Select Committee report on the Draft Bill recommend that property owners should be included"." That was in 2002, so we are going back a long way. The Select Committee in another place said: ""We recommend that the Government works with the British Property Federation and other business organisations to find the best way of involving property owners as contributors to Business Improvement Districts, if necessary amending primary legislation and certainly covering this point in regulations and guidance"." However, that recommendation did not commend itself to the Government. When amendments were moved in the other place proposing that owners should be included, the then Minister, Nick Raynsford, for whom I have considerable respect, led the charge against including owners. However—surprise, surprise—on this occasion, the honourable gentleman who moved the amendment in the other place proposing that owners should be included in BIDs was the right honourable Nick Raynsford MP. There is more joy in heaven over a sinner that repenteth and so on, and it is very good that we now have his support on this matter. I hope that that augers well for support from the Government. The noble Baroness’s amendment may well not be in the form in which it should finally appear in legislation but that is frequently the fate of those who move amendments. They then wait for government amendments that have the benefit of being drafted by parliamentary counsel. However, the noble Baroness’s final point is very important. Because the Bill is concerned with the business rate supplement, the amendment has had to be drafted, on advice from the Public Bill Office, so that it applies only to BIDs where there is a BRS levy. That gives rise to the astonishing anomaly that, if we do indeed agree that owners as well as occupiers should pay a contribution to a BID levy, it can apply only in areas where a local authority has decided to put forward a proposal for a business rate supplement. BIDs in other areas would affect only occupiers and not owners, but that would be wholly illogical. I, too, have had discussions with a helpful gentleman in the Public Bill Office. The reason is not so much the Long Title of the Bill, but simply the Bill’s general intention as evidenced by its provisions. It would be inappropriate, and therefore impossible, to have an amendment that would cover BIDs that are not in a district which was going to have a BRS. When I asked what would be necessary to achieve that, the answer was that it would probably require an amendment to the Long Title of the Bill. I said, "What do we have to do to do that?", and was told, "We can’t do that in this House. It will have to be done in the other place". This means that there must be a peg in the Bill as it leaves this House and goes back to the other place which would enable those who wish to support owners being included in BIDs in every area to have an amendment to the Long Title. I hope that I have made myself clear. This is the sort of procedural difficulty that one finds oneself in, with rules that have grown up over a long period and for which I have always felt a great respect. It is therefore for the Government to ensure, when we come to Report or Third Reading, that there is a provision in the Bill that would allow the other place to make the change in the Long Title, as I have suggested. We could then have the logical position that, if owners can be included—it is only a power—in a BID, then it could apply to all BIDs and not just those which happen to have a business rates supplement applied. I very much hope that the amendment, or the spirit and purpose of the amendment, moved by the noble Baroness, Lady Valentine, commends itself to the Minister.