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Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill

I had the privilege of leading Leicester city council for some 17 years. It has been said that that is longer than a life sentence, and at times it certainly felt like it. But in that capacity my city and I survived the rating system, the savage revenue and capital cuts of the early 1980s, and the rate capping and attendant confrontations that took place in what was a pretty painful period. We also survived the poll tax and the disastrous disruption and confrontation that it caused in our city, as it did elsewhere. We are now surviving the council tax and the attendant capping. So it is with mixed feelings that I speak on this Bill, because I do not know that many of my constituents are likely to benefit from a revaluation, were one to take place. I realise that there are many different predictions about the possible outcome of such a revaluation, but it seems that my constituents and others in Leicester have suffered from the fact that house prices have risen less significantly there than elsewhere. So there is perhaps some benefit in revaluation, but set against that is the obvious pain that would be caused to those whose revaluation moved in a less favourable direction. Far outweighing any of those considerations is the enormous benefit that is to be gained from a thorough review of the functions and the funding method of local government. I am enormously heartened by what the Minister said in introducing this debate about the Government’s commitment to devolution and decentralisation in respect of local government. The Lyons review provides a unique opportunity to look at local government root and branch, and to consider not just its funding but ways of ensuring that its future is healthier than the preceding decades have been. On balance, I very much favour the deferment of any revaluation, and I look forward to a radical reform of the finance and functions of local government.