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Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill

I hope that the noble Baroness and the noble Lord discussed this matter beforehand so that she could properly assess what he was getting at. I have tried to make my assessment and have looked at the import of the amendment. As I said, the consideration here is what we seek to achieve for England. Revaluation has happened in Wales, as the noble Baroness rightly said. It is entirely a matter for the Welsh Assembly Government; that is the beauty of the devolution settlement. After all, the National Assembly for Wales agreed in 2002 that a revaluation should be completed in Wales in 2005. It is revenue-neutral. Of course, wherever one was talking about, council tax would depend on the rate at which the local authority decided to determine its local council tax level, having taken account of local commitments and pressures and so on. That must be remembered in this exercise. I do not see that as a basis of justification for this amendment. I am intrigued by the efforts of noble Lords opposite to introduce a Welsh element into a debate which is exclusively about what we seek to do with the revaluation in England. Having heard what they have to say on the subject, and hoping that they accept the need for flexibility—I thought they had accepted that—I hope that the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw his amendment.