Parliamentary search - Business Rate Supplements Bill

Type

Parliamentary proceeding

Reference

489 c301-64

Session

2008-09

Department

Department for Communities and Local Government

Legislative stage

Third reading and Report stage

Procedure

Programme motions
New clauses
New schedules
Queen's consent

Chamber / Committee

House of Commons chamber

Business Rate Supplements Bill. Explanatory Notes Bill 2-EN also published.
Thursday, 4 December 2008
Bills
House of Commons

Proceeding contributions

Mark Field | 489 c303 (Link to this contribution) Having served on the Public Bill Committee, I pay tribute to the Minister for the work that was done...

John Redwood | 489 c301-2 (Link to this contribution) I share the concern expressed by my hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill...

Show all contributions (127)

Angela Watkinson | 489 c328 (Link to this contribution) How can participating businesses agreeing to the establishment of a business improvement district kn...

Nick Raynsford | 489 c327-8 (Link to this contribution) New clause 2 concerns the interface between business rate supplements and business improvement distr...

Angela Watkinson | 489 c328 (Link to this contribution) Does that mean that when the initial objective has been met and a new project has been proposed, the...

Nick Raynsford | 489 c328 (Link to this contribution) One of the arrangements that has applied throughout the evolution of BIDs is a proper procedure for ...

Nick Raynsford | 489 c328-9 (Link to this contribution) I am sorry if the hon. Lady did not entirely follow what I said earlier. As I explained, the BID leg...

Dan Rogerson | 489 c323-4 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for that clarification. However, I am concerned that amend...

Speaker | 489 c327 (Link to this contribution) With this it will be convenient to discuss amendment 4, in title, line 3, after 'development;', inse...

Nick Raynsford | 489 c327 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.

Brian Binley | 489 c304 (Link to this contribution) I will be delighted to answer that if I can get into the mindset of the Government, which is difficu...

Greg Knight | 489 c304 (Link to this contribution) Why is my hon. Friend surprised by the motion, given that this Government have a history of curtaili...

Brian Binley | 489 c304 (Link to this contribution) This programme motion surprises me. We hear many fine words from the Government about the importance...

Speaker | 489 c309 (Link to this contribution) With this it will be convenient to discuss the following: Amendment 1, page 13, line 6, leave out cl...

Dan Rogerson | 489 c310 (Link to this contribution) As we heard in the previous debate, the Bill is attracting increasing attention from business people...

Dan Rogerson | 489 c309 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.

Robert Neill | 489 c312-3 (Link to this contribution) I have much sympathy with many of the remarks of the hon. Member for North Cornwall (Dan Rogerson). ...

Mark Field | 489 c310 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman and the Minister have both said that the relationship between businesses and loca...

Dan Rogerson | 489 c310-2 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman raises a good point. In his constituency there is an organisation that represents...

Robert Neill | 489 c313-4 (Link to this contribution) I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend, who makes a powerful point. I was a member of a local author...

Lee Scott | 489 c313 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that if something was going wrong with a project, the local businesses, be...

Dan Rogerson | 489 c315 (Link to this contribution) I was at great pains to say earlier that the relationship between business and local government has ...

Derek Twigg | 489 c315-6 (Link to this contribution) I do not disagree with the hon. Gentleman's comments on what was said during the hearings; powerful ...

Robert Neill | 489 c316 (Link to this contribution) Given the hon. Gentleman's point about the forums and procedures that exist to allow bodies to work ...

Derek Twigg | 489 c316 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman makes my point for me. Why should we do that? In most areas—not every area—these ...

Mark Field | 489 c316 (Link to this contribution) The Minister will be aware from previous debates on this matter that I have perhaps a little more sy...

Dan Rogerson | 489 c317 (Link to this contribution) I am pleased that the hon. Gentleman is exploring the matter and supports us on the general concept,...

Mark Field | 489 c317 (Link to this contribution) I appreciate that the Bill will not necessarily create fully fledged Crossrails across the board. T...

Robert Neill | 489 c321 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful for the spirit in which the Minister has approached the matter. I do not seek to be ne...

John Healey | 489 c320-1 (Link to this contribution) We have now moved beyond the programme motion debate and back to the serious scrutiny that has been ...

John Redwood | 489 c318-20 (Link to this contribution) Yes. I do not want to make this party political, although I have had experience of what my hon. Frie...

Brian Binley | 489 c318 (Link to this contribution) The objective of allowing scrutiny is to allay suspicion and fear. The appointment of the whole boar...

John Redwood | 489 c317-8 (Link to this contribution) I see the need for something that will satisfy the business community that a project is worthy and w...

John Redwood | 489 c323 (Link to this contribution) I was not trying to pick holes in new clause 1; I was trying to say that we need a structure that wi...

John Healey | 489 c321-2 (Link to this contribution) The guidance is statutory and authorities are therefore clearly expected to follow any terms set out...

Robert Neill | 489 c321 (Link to this contribution) The Minister is generous, as always, in giving way. His response may help us crystallise our thinkin...

Mark Field | 489 c303-4 (Link to this contribution) I entirely agree with my right hon. Friend's every word. I only hope that there are not too many hos...

John Redwood | 489 c303 (Link to this contribution) Is this not an unreasonable pressure to place on us? There is nothing wrong with debating whether th...

Dan Rogerson | 489 c302-3 (Link to this contribution) I entirely agree with the right hon. Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood) and the hon. Member for Brom...

Derek Twigg | 489 c364 (Link to this contribution) I want to make a brief speech to finish what I was saying before the last vote. First, I completely ...

Mark Field | 489 c340 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend is making his case very powerfully, and he is right to say that there was a sen...

John Redwood | 489 c340-1 (Link to this contribution) I think that my hon. Friend and I can agree that the current situation is bad and will get worse, an...

Dan Rogerson | 489 c341 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman is setting out what is clearly a cautionary principle, and it is right and ...

Robert Neill | 489 c338 (Link to this contribution) That is precisely the risk. It concerns me with regard not only to the new clause but to the Bill in...

Lee Scott | 489 c338 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend share my concern that where BID schemes are being voted on an element of fear mi...

Robert Neill | 489 c338 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend highlights one of the conundrums that the Government have created in their handling o...

Dan Rogerson | 489 c338-9 (Link to this contribution) I echo the comments made by the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill) in saying tha...

Robert Neill | 489 c337-8 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the right hon. Member for Greenwich and Woolwich (Mr. Raynsford) both for having re...

John Redwood | 489 c338 (Link to this contribution) Is that not the danger? In this climate, when there will be very little private finance for such sch...

Speaker | 489 c344-5 (Link to this contribution) With this it will be convenient to discuss the following amendments: Amendment 3, page 1, line 20, a...

Robert Neill | 489 c345 (Link to this contribution) We return now to the issue that has been fairly central to some of the earlier discussion of the Bil...

Nick Raynsford | 489 c344 (Link to this contribution) I am extremely grateful to my right hon. Friend for that most encouraging response. I fully understa...

Robert Neill | 489 c344 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move amendment 5, page 1, line 17, leave out paragraphs (b) to (d).

Lee Scott | 489 c342-3 (Link to this contribution) I want to elaborate a little on what I said in an earlier intervention, and I hope that the Minister...

John Healey | 489 c343-4 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my right hon. Friend the Member for Greenwich and Woolwich (Mr. Raynsford) for tabl...

Nick Raynsford | 489 c342 (Link to this contribution) When the BIDs were introduced, some people in the business community expressed the fear that local a...

John Redwood | 489 c342 (Link to this contribution) I am sure that the right hon. Gentleman is right; he has more experience of BIDs than I do. There ar...

John Redwood | 489 c341-2 (Link to this contribution) I accept that, and there will be some examples of good BID organisations that would not go down the ...

John Redwood | 489 c331 (Link to this contribution) Is that not the point? All these schemes were dreamed up in a totally different world of rising prop...

Nick Raynsford | 489 c331-2 (Link to this contribution) On the contrary. The right hon. Gentleman will know the importance of major infrastructure investmen...

Angela Watkinson | 489 c332 (Link to this contribution) I am listening to the right hon. Gentleman most carefully and I think I understood him to say that o...

Nick Raynsford | 489 c332 (Link to this contribution) That is very much the point raised by the hon. Member for Northampton, South (Mr. Binley) and perhap...

Brian Binley | 489 c332-3 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman is most kind and I am very grateful to him for giving way. Can I get it cle...

Nick Raynsford | 489 c333 (Link to this contribution) I must apologise to the hon. Gentleman. This is complex territory and I am probably not explaining i...

Mark Field | 489 c330 (Link to this contribution) I am sure the right hon. Gentleman agrees that one of the most important tenets of any tax, to make ...

Nick Raynsford | 489 c330 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman raises a pertinent point. I am going to address that in detail later in my speech...

Mark Field | 489 c330 (Link to this contribution) It is probably worth making the case that there is one very large landowner in that area: the Crown ...

Nick Raynsford | 489 c330-1 (Link to this contribution) That is absolutely right and I am not making my case solely on the basis of the New West End Company...

Nick Raynsford | 489 c335-6 (Link to this contribution) By definition, yes, because, as I have said, I think that there is the possibility of existing BIDs ...

Angela Watkinson | 489 c336 (Link to this contribution) I have been following the right hon. Gentleman's remarks to the best of my ability. When business ow...

Brian Binley | 489 c335 (Link to this contribution) I thank the right hon. Gentleman for taking great steps to ensure we understand what is a rather com...

Nick Raynsford | 489 c336-7 (Link to this contribution) The procedure is the same as the one that applies to the property occupiers ballot. There has to be ...

John Redwood | 489 c333 (Link to this contribution) How much extra money does the right hon. Gentleman think would come in as a result of the change?

Nick Raynsford | 489 c334 (Link to this contribution) I have already made it clear that this provision will apply only in areas where there is an existing...

Lee Scott | 489 c334 (Link to this contribution) I wonder whether the right hon. Gentleman can provide clarification on the following point. In my ne...

Nick Raynsford | 489 c334 (Link to this contribution) I tabled the new clause to provide an offset for property occupiers who currently have a liability t...

Dan Rogerson | 489 c334 (Link to this contribution) On this aspect of the new clause, am I right in understanding that where there is an existing BID, t...

John Healey | 489 c358-9 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Lady is right to say that the circumstances of the London boroughs vary, but she may have m...

Angela Watkinson | 489 c358 (Link to this contribution) That is generous of the Minister. I wanted to comment specifically on what he has just said about Lo...

John Healey | 489 c359-60 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right. He has made the same point at several stages during the Bill's progress. Ho...

Derek Twigg | 489 c359 (Link to this contribution) Opposition Members have made the important point that businesses are under considerable pressure and...

John Healey | 489 c358 (Link to this contribution) I welcome the degree of interest in the Third Reading expressed by those on the Government Benches. ...

Speaker | 489 c358 (Link to this contribution) Order. If Members are leaving, will they leave quietly and if they are not leaving, will they remain...

John Healey | 489 c358 (Link to this contribution) I have only just begun my speech, but I will give way.

Angela Watkinson | 489 c358 (Link to this contribution) Will the Minister give way?

Speaker | 489 c354;489 c353 (Link to this contribution) There cannot be a Division on amendment 15 because it is in a different group and has not been moved...

John Healey | 489 c358 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move, That the Bill be now read the Third time. Through each stage of the Bill, I have bee...

Dan Rogerson | 489 c363 (Link to this contribution) Absolutely. I agree with the hon. Gentleman. I think that that has been the feeling of just about ev...

Lee Scott | 489 c363 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman agree that balloting would be the most sensible way of engaging the business...

Dan Rogerson | 489 c363 (Link to this contribution) I agree that, as ever, the ministerial team, the civil servants and the Opposition Front-Bench team ...

Robert Neill | 489 c361-3 (Link to this contribution) I was reminded of the earlier observations by my right hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (Mr. Red...

John Healey | 489 c361 (Link to this contribution) I understand the reason for the hon. Gentleman's concern and the case he has made; he has made it el...

Brian Binley | 489 c361 (Link to this contribution) The Minister cannot tell me what the average rateable value will be and we know that the revaluation...

John Healey | 489 c361 (Link to this contribution) In effect, nine out of 10 businesses fall below a rateable value threshold of £50,000. If the hon. G...

John Healey | 489 c360 (Link to this contribution) Action by any business tax payer deliberately to avoid payment of the business taxes that they are l...

Brian Binley | 489 c360 (Link to this contribution) The Minister is generous in giving way and it is appreciated. He referred to the £50,000 rateable va...

Paul Farrelly | 489 c360 (Link to this contribution) We had a thorough discussion in Committee, but I still have a question about eligibility to vote on ...

Nick Raynsford | 489 c346 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman will be aware, because he has referred to this already, that the genesis of the b...

Robert Neill | 489 c345-6 (Link to this contribution) The answer is, in fact, none of those things, as the hon. Lady might have discerned. Crossrail is a ...

Mark Field | 489 c346-7 (Link to this contribution) I can see precisely what my hon. Friend is trying to achieve, and he is absolutely right about the c...

Robert Neill | 489 c346 (Link to this contribution) Because in the current circumstances it would be wrong to do so. I will adopt, if the right hon. Gen...

Lee Scott | 489 c347 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend remember that in 2004, the then Mayor of London, Mr. Livingstone, addressed a me...

Robert Neill | 489 c347 (Link to this contribution) That point may be taken up elsewhere. My hon. Friend highlights an issue that underlines the fact th...

Phyllis Starkey | 489 c348 (Link to this contribution) I am seriously disturbed by the thread, which has run through almost every contribution from Conserv...

Robert Neill | 489 c347-8 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right. There were moments when the previous Mayor of London had flashes of insight...

Brian Binley | 489 c348 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that that the Government clearly trust local government so much that they ...

Robert Neill | 489 c348 (Link to this contribution) After 24 years' service in one form of local authority or another, I will not take any lectures from...

Robert Neill | 489 c349 (Link to this contribution) Very easily. I did not use the word "cap". I said that what was required was a guarantee that the of...

Nick Raynsford | 489 c348-9 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way. May I take him back to the last debate on my pro...

Robert Neill | 489 c348 (Link to this contribution) I give way to the right hon. Gentleman, whose views on the topic I respect.

Nick Raynsford | 489 c348 (Link to this contribution) rose—

Speaker | 489 c353 (Link to this contribution) I have been advised that hon. Members seek a Division on amendment 16.

Derek Twigg | 489 c349-50 (Link to this contribution) I hugely enjoyed the speech made by the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill) as he...

Robert Neill | 489 c349 (Link to this contribution) It was a good try by the right hon. Gentleman, as well, but it did not quite come off. The simple fa...

Nick Raynsford | 489 c349 (Link to this contribution) Good try!

Robert Neill | 489 c353 (Link to this contribution) On amendments 15 and 16.

Robert Neill | 489 c348 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right, as ever. I note his long service in local government and the practical job ...

Nick Raynsford | 489 c329-30 (Link to this contribution) If the hon. Gentleman bears with me, he will hear precisely how I believe that the introduction of a...

John Healey | 489 c304-5 (Link to this contribution) I quite understand why the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill) and his friends ar...

Dan Rogerson | 489 c322-3 (Link to this contribution) I am pleased to have prompted a debate about the issue, if nothing else, although I sense that there...

John Healey | 489 c321 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman has a good memory and I am surprised that he has overlooked our detailed discussi...

John Redwood | 489 c339-40 (Link to this contribution) I, too, praise the right hon. Member for Greenwich and Woolwich for the way in which he spoke to his...

Phyllis Starkey | 489 c345 (Link to this contribution) I would be grateful if the hon. Gentleman could clarify whether his argument rests on a view that an...

Nick Raynsford | 489 c334-5 (Link to this contribution) Even assuming that this new clause is accepted, the Bill still has to pass through Parliament. I do ...

Derek Twigg | 489 c314-5 (Link to this contribution) I shall make a few brief comments, particularly on new clause 1, because I want to save most of my r...

Robert Neill | 489 c301 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friends and I are concerned about the programme motion because, although the Bill is insubst...

Brian Binley | 489 c329 (Link to this contribution) I understand the thrust of the new clause and I have some sympathy with it. However, my concern is t...

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