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Finance Bill

May I first welcome the new attachment of the Opposition parties to the concept of REITs? It was, in fact, this Government who introduced the potential benefits of a REIT system and we never heard any proposal to that effect from Opposition parties. New clause 9 follows a simple pattern. Opposition Members have said that they want to focus the Government’s mind on making more rapid progress in solving the problems associated with REITs. The problem with the new clause is that it invites the Government to introduce regulations before 31 October, irrespective of whether, before that date, we have resolved all the difficulties and concerns that hon. Members have accepted as authentic and legitimate. How can a particular date be specified for a set of proposals when there is no way of being certain that it is possible to resolve the outstanding problems relating to them? Doing so would be entirely irresponsible. What we have said throughout is that it is our objective and desire, if we can resolve the problems, to introduce proposals for the next Finance Bill—and that remains our position, but we cannot guarantee it. If, in the course of our discussion and consideration of the issues, it continues to become apparent that the principles necessary to underpin a REIT scheme cannot be secured, we will have to take that into account before taking any final decisions. The message about the need to make rapid progress on REITs is, frankly, a message that the Opposition have no need to keep telling the Government.