Central London Businesses

Successive Governments—not just my own, because this system came in in 1990 under the hon. Gentleman's party—have tried to ensure that the distribution is as fair as possible. It is obviously not always feasible to make it totally fair, but we believe that at present we have the fairest system possible. The hon. Gentleman expressed concern about the impact of the Greater London authority's business rate supplement, which is due to be introduced across London at the same time as revaluation in 2010. As he knows, the supplement will play a key part in funding Crossrail. The London Mayor, who is responsible for levying the supplement, has recently consulted on the detailed arrangements. While it is for him to argue the merits of the case for introducing a supplement in April 2010, I believe that many hon. Members on both sides of the political divide agree that London has waited too long for Crossrail, and that we have to do what we can to reap its benefits. It should also be remembered that businesses are not being expected to contribute something for nothing: Crossrail will bring huge benefits to the London economy. The hon. Gentleman asked why the Government have not committed to increasing the £50,000 threshold in line with the revaluation in 2010. Rateable values are unlikely to rise equally across the country. Indeed, as I said, in some areas they are likely to reduce, and any upward revision of the threshold would mean that councils saw a reduction in their ability to raise revenue, thereby limiting the size of project that they could fund using the supplement.