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Rating (Empty Properties) Bill

I am grateful to the Minister for telling us about the FSB. I will not at present go into the details of the case made by its head of parliamentary affairs, Mr. Stephen Alambritis. However, I will move on to the broader impact that the measure will have on businesses large and small across the country. One lobby group led by one individual has made the case in favour of the Government’s measure, but many other groups, which cover not only the commercial property sector but also the important areas of regeneration and retail are deeply upset about what is happening. They include the British Property Federation, the British Retail Consortium and the Royal Charter—I mean the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. How on earth I forgot the name of that body when it has been so helpful to me in the past I will never understand—it is a fantastic body. The point stands: we can trade trade bodies at the Dispatch Box for some time, but the balance rests with the Opposition and those who are concerned about the measure. If we are simply going to weigh the number of representations that have been made, the measure will fall, as the total representations critical of the measure far exceed the total representations from the commercial sector that support it.