Our amendment 18 would give the Secretary of State some discretion to prevent any unintended consequences arising out of the levy changes from affecting city deals. The amendment states:
“The Secretary of State may, by Order, exempt from the calculation of an authority’s basic amount of council tax any levies agreed as part of a City Deal signed prior to this Act receiving Royal Assent.”
We are concerned that the provisions to include levying bodies could affect those city deals that have been agreed around the country.
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The provisions would, for example, affect the deal in which the Leeds city region has been promised a large investment fund that is to be part-funded by the increased levy from the integrated transport authority. The deal was done in the expectation that the current rules would apply—that is, that the integrated transport authority levy would not be included in the calculation. Will the Minister clarify that, at the time the city deal was signed, there had been no discussion about changing the rules on levying authorities? The answer to that must surely be no. Had the Government known that they intended to make these retrospective changes, it would only have been right to inform the authorities that that city deal could be undermined by the changes on levying made at a later date. All local authorities are important, of course, but those that are leading our major cities and trying to work in partnership with the Government could understandably think that there had been a breach of faith in this regard.