Business Rates

I am sorry, but I have not got time to give way. I normally would, but I had only five minutes and have only one minute to go. Revaluation is just another red herring. The hon. Member for Putney (Justine Greening) simply does not understand. Revaluation is not a way of raising in total additional money for Government or anyone else. It is simply a way of ensuring that, in light of current circumstances, the amount that is going to be raised is properly raised and spread between the various businesses in the country. That is all that it does. Once a Government fall behind with revaluation, postpone it and put it off, that simply means that the next time they do it, the dislocation is even greater. I have to say to the Government that that is exactly the problem that we now have with council tax revaluation. It has been postponed and postponed, and we have got ourselves in a real mess. The system of property tax will have credibility only when it is based on current values, not on historical values that people simply do not understand. I have tried to keep to the five-minute limit and to deal with some of the important points in this debate, but I think that the Opposition missed a big opportunity. Their commitment to localism is obviously very thin indeed.