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Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill

What has just been said is part of the proposal that I put forward. If you look at what other countries do each year—the United States, for example—they do not use revaluation, but a basket of indicators. If you buy a house in a particular street, the building society can value it straight away. There are plenty of indicators around that could be put in a basket to make an indication without having a mammoth, expensive revaluation. You could then start the process this year. With a ceiling and floor system, nobody would go up or down too much and everyone would accept revaluation just like that. It would happen every year. No government could politically do a full-scale revaluation. What I have suggested gets out of that. I have suggested that to Michael Lyons. Other countries do it like that without the fuss that we have. That is why parts of this legislation are premature. We need to cancel the revaluation now, because that is the law, but we need to look at more innovative ways of doing it in the future. That is why two or three parts of the Bill should wait. Let us have a full-scale debate and the Lyons review—which I am sure will suggest things like this because I have talked in some detail to Sir Michael Lyons about it. Those of us who are involved on a day-to-day basis know how unpopular a mammoth rise would be, and that is not politically on for any government at the moment. I have suggested my alternative, which is why we tabled this amendment. I am sure that we will return to this matter on Report because some parts of the Bill are premature. With that, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.