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Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I hope that you will allow me to give the hon. Member for Mole Valley the assurance that he asked for. I deliberately said in my opening remarks that we had had a sensible and principled debate as the Bill made its way through the House. The Bill does three things, and three things only. It effectively postpones the 2007 council tax revaluation exercise. Despite the confused messages coming from Opposition spokesmen and spokeswomen, we are postponing revaluation. We have made it clear that we do not believe that it will happen in the lifetime of this Parliament. The Bill removes the requirement for subsequent revaluations to take place at intervals of no more than 10 years. Finally, it gives the Secretary of State power to set the date of revaluations by order, subject to affirmative resolution in the House. That is all that it does. There are no proposals for new powers for VOA staff. Indeed, the existing powers to carry out inspections have been in place since before the second world war and were affirmed in the Local Government Finance Act 1992. One of the reasons why those powers exist is to help the VOA to stop people avoiding paying their tax.