Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [Lords]

The Minister says, "We've been over this", but the Home Secretary does not agree and is masquerading as a constituency MP on this issue and going against the policy of the Government. We may have gone over the issue, but we certainly have not resolved it. The Government's policy also contravenes the Treasury's guidance on retrospective taxation. The Treasury Committee concluded that consideration should be given to the proposal to maintain the rating system in statutory docks and harbours at the levels published in the April 2005 rating lists until the new lists are published in April 2010. Those new taxes will hit the wider economy as a range of companies, such as those in the car and road haulage industries, are based in ports. The Prime Minister has failed to realise that his policies will lead to jobs being lost. As we have seen tonight, Ministers are in denial about the harmful effects of those unfair, retrospective taxes. For instance, GEFCO, Peugeot's and Citroen's main distributor in Britain, is being hit with a retrospective £3 million rates bill. It makes a mockery of Lord Mandelson's claims that the Government are trying to help the car industry. Those taxes are a kick in the teeth for local firms in the depths of recession. The retrospective tax fiasco highlights the joint incompetence of the Valuation Office Agency and Ministers. It is resulting in firms being pushed into insolvency and needlessly laying off workers. Indeed, the Government were forced to accept the principle that the retrospective charges were undesirable in the Business Rate Supplements Act 2009, via Conservative amendments during the Bill's passage through the other place. Should that principle not have wider implications for business rates in general? The effect on business is acute. The Humber docks rating revaluation group estimates that 600 businesses could be affected. Some firms have already started to lay off workers. I turn briefly to the comments of the Home Secretary, the right hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull, West and Hessle (Alan Johnson), who was quite happy to vote with his party but was keen locally to "reopen" the issue of retrospective bills, which are to hit port companies with a tax bill of more than £200 million in Hull. The proposals are at the heart of economic assessment. The Government have done everything they can to fail to face the issue and debate it in the House in a proper and meaningful way, as the Minister for Housing knows full well. For the avoidance of doubt, Conservatives believe, and have said, that the current 2005 rating list system should remain in force for ports, and that any new system should be introduced only in the 2010-15 rating cycle, following appropriate consultation with industry with proper advance warning—as has failed to take place thus far. On the basis of the case I have made this evening about the ports tax and the damage it will do to our industry and ports, I ask the House to support our amendment.