Business Rates

May I welcome the Minister for Regional Economic Development and Co-ordination to her position tonight? It is good to see her here. I was hoping that we might hear from her about a change of Government direction regarding the issue on which I want to spend my time this evening: automatic rate relief for small business. The Minister disappointed me enormously, but there is still time. She is new to the job and therefore prepared, I hope, to listen to argument. If so, I hope that by the end of this evening the Government will change their mind. Let us see. The Minister will know that I was a sponsor of the Bill on this matter promoted by my hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Worcestershire (Peter Luff). Indeed, the Government seemed to support the main thrust of the Bill on Second Reading. We were very optimistic. The then Minister, the right hon. Member for Tooting (Mr. Khan), said that although he was not privy to what his""right hon. Friend the Chancellor may put in the Budget report…I do know that robust consideration is being given to what is the best method of support for businesses, and the private Member's Bill of the hon. Member for Mid-Worcestershire has, no doubt, driven the matter even further up the agenda."" He went on to say that""I must emphasise that we have not ruled this out as an option for the future…Clearly, Government should support the aims put forward today by the hon. Gentleman with the support of the FSB"," the Federation of Small Businesses. He concluded:""Between them, they have come up with a proposal in which there may well be merit."—[Official Report, 6 March 2009; Vol. 488, c. 1144-45.]" Those were the remarks made by the then Minister in the last debate we had on this subject. We had every reason to be hopeful that that Minister would therefore urge the Chancellor to put automatic payment of rate relief to small businesses in the Budget. We listened to the Budget with great dismay, and heard not a word—not a mention. After all those fine words, after all that encouragement and after all those intimations that the Government might well accept the Bill—on the basis of which my hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Worcestershire withdrew the Bill on Second Reading, and did not push it any further because he was so encouraged—sadly, they did not act. We found that very disappointing. No provision was made in the Budget and no proposal has appeared since then. I do not need to go into the reasons why small businesses are in the plight that they are, other than to say that cash is king—I keep on saying that. Small businesses are fighting on every front to remain viable, and the payment of rates represents the third largest payment to a given area of budgetary control that small businesses have to pay out. That is the truth of the matter. They need the cash. How much cash? They need £1,200, but it would mean a great deal to the many hundreds of thousands of very small businesses up and down the country if that could be given automatically. Why is not given automatically? Simply, it depends on how the local authority treats the issue. Businesses benefit when they are in local authorities that take an interest in the matter and advertise the availability of rate relief, but those elsewhere do not get the chance to claim. [Interruption.] I see the Minister turning up her rather pretty nose—I am sorry, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I hope that that was not too personal—so I shall give her some figures by way of explanation. In Essex, only 27.1 per cent. of businesses in the Thurrock unitary authority claim small business rate relief, whereas the figure in Tendring district council is 72.7 per cent. That is a massive difference between councils that are very close geographically, and it is due to the fact that one makes an effort and the other does not. It is very simple: 52 per cent. of small businesses across the country do not claim the relief to which they would be entitled if they knew about it. So why should the relief be given automatically? The Minister said that that did not happen because it was too difficult to put into effect—what nonsense! It has been put into effect in Wales with no problems whatsoever, and local authority treasurers have told me that they would rather the relief was a right than to have to get people to apply for it. With respect to the Minister, her response was nonsense. I therefore urge the right hon. Lady—in the nicest possible way, as I was rather rude to her earlier—to look at the matter again. Making the relief automatic would save money for local authorities, and it could allow very small businesses still to be here this time next year. That is their objective.