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Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill

I did not hear all of the right hon. Gentleman’s question, but if he said that while Sir Michael Lyons was willing to countenance up to a year’s delay in revaluation but did not propose the postponement that we are proposing today, he is absolutely right; I do not seek to hide our decision behind the recommendation of Sir Michael Lyons. As I said when I announced our decision on 20 September, we need a clear and complete picture of what we want local government to do before we tackle how it will be funded. In short, we must settle function before funding. As I also said on 20 September, later this autumn Sir Michael will set out his preliminary thinking, drawing out the relationship of local government function to finance. He will publish a series of reports next year in the lead up to his final report at the end of 2006.