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Finance Bill

I entirely agree. Indeed, in submissions made to the Treasury by the British Property Federation, those exact points have been spelled out. We are fortunate in this country to have a hugely successful and internationally recognised financial services industry, with a skills and knowledge base that is incomparably successful by international standards. We can be grateful that it exists, because as we all recognise, our manufacturing capabilities do not match our success in the financial services industry—and REITs represent an area of investment that the investment community wants to see on the statute book. The Government have accepted in principle that this is the right thing to do, but for reasons that are difficult to understand, they have been unable to come to a firm conclusion. I simply say to the Paymaster General is that there is no substantive disagreement on the principle, but we must accept that at this stage we need to fix a date for the introduction of REITs. That is exactly what the new clause is all about, and I hope that the Minister’s response will give us some clarification of how we can move the process forward as rapidly as possible.