Business Rates

I suggest that there is probably a lot of support for what the hon. Member for Northampton, South (Mr. Binley) has just said and that making the relief automatic would help in several ways. However, time is brief and I want to put to Ministers a specific proposal for saving some money for small companies in the city of Coventry at this difficult time. Coventry's Business Improvement District company has been referred to already today. It is full of good intentions, but unfortunately it has proved to be inadequate and delinquent in its duties. Electoral reform is much in the air at present, and all forms of voting are subject to review, so I put it to my right hon. Friend the Minister for Regional Economic Development and Co-ordination that she could have another look at the requisite level of approval from small companies that these BID projects need. The one in Coventry was passed with just 18 per cent. of the companies being taxed actually voting in favour, and that is a very low figure indeed. A lot of false promises and representations were made by the BID company that have simply not been met—in respect of security and CCTV cameras, and of broadband, to which the Government and all businesses are very committed. The provision of broadband is running over a year late already, while the CCTV system—which was promised with back-up policemen and all that sort of thing—covers only a small percentage of the premises that are paying for it. The local authority supports the BID project, but it has been mooted that some rebate would be in order. This is a terrible time for small companies in the city of Coventry, and the payments are still strongly resisted, as I shall describe in a moment. I put it to my right hon. Friend the Minister that both a rebate and a deferral could be used to gear the payments, and that that would be absolutely in order and very necessary. The extra tax, of course, is levied on charities, but supermarkets and leisure centres are exempt. That makes no sense at all. The charities affected include the British Heart Foundation and Coventry's Ring and Ride project, both of which are being made to pay the tax. I think that the bailiffs are being sent in to the 140 companies that are unable to pay, so the full force and rigour of the law are being brought to bear for no better purpose that I can see than to expose the inadequacies of the BID company. In addition, rates are being levied on small companies to fund CV One, which is a Coventry city council initiative—a very admirable initiative, I am sure—to boost the image of Coventry. In many respects, the city suffers from a relatively poor image, despite its many advantages. A select group of companies have been picked out for the privilege of paying £400,000 a year, when the whole of Coventry is meant to benefit from the initiative. I ask my right hon. Friend the Minister and the Government please to get in touch with the BID company. I beg her to ask the company to answer my questions, which it refuses to do with an arrogance that one cannot believe. Please may we push through a deferral—that is very much at the heart of the Government's rates proposals—and a rebate to the companies in question?