Local Government Finance Bill

It would be helpful to have a little more detail as soon as possible on what the Government mean. I hope that, in winding up the debate, the Minister is able to set out a little more detail than we have at the moment. Clearly, the intention of the proposal is to offset unforeseen falls in rate income in certain areas. By their nature, those falls are unforeseen. Is it the Minister's intention that the levy on disproportionate gain will be equal to any unforeseen fall in income in certain authorities, or will the Government simply recoup a levy of disproportionate gain even if there has not been an unforeseen fall in council business rate income? If things were dealt with on an annual basis, there might be a year in which there was not any unforeseen fall, so it might be sensible for a number of local authorities with quite large gains to take a share of the income, whereas in a subsequent year there might be the opposite situation. What I am trying to tease out of the Minister is whether the exercise will be annual or whether it will occur over a period of years. Could a fund be carried forward to cover unforeseen falls in council business rate income? From my reading of the Bill—it would help if there were more information—I believe that the fund is to be exceptional and will affect only a number of authorities. One might think of the developments in Stratford, nuclear power stations, estuarial airports, car plants and so on. It would also be interesting to the Committee if the Minister set out whether, if the Government recouped disproportionate gain, it would be simply for one year or for a period of years. What does the Bill mean by a ““share”” of the fund? If a car plant were built within a local authority area, would the Government split the difference of the income with the local authority? We need a little more information so that we can have a much better idea of how the Government intend to proceed over the next few years. Clearly, a base year will be set for business rates. On that basis, I believe that changes will be small to start off with. However, it would be useful if the Minister could give a little more information. What advance knowledge would the Government have of a change? Presumably if a major car plant, shopping centre or utility plant were closed, a local authority would very quickly write to the Minister. Will he also get information from the Valuation Office Agency about what is happening in a particular district, including new developments? We need a little more information so that the Committee can feel a bit more comfortable about what the Government intend.