Business Rates

I thank the Minister for giving way; she has been exceptionally generous, and I am sure that the House will understand if her speech goes on a little longer because of all the interventions she has taken. The matter of empty property rates is a very serious one, especially for businesses that have no choice but to get out of their premises. In my constituency, for example, the Buncefield oil depot exploded in 2005, and some of the damaged buildings are still unsafe for people to go back to work in, yet the companies concerned are being charged the full rate for buildings that they cannot go back into. Surely that is a ludicrous anomaly in the legislation.