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Rating (Empty Properties) Bill

As so often, my right hon. Friend makes his point clearly. I want to discuss two aspects of the amendment. Other speakers have touched on them, but I want to reinforce my concern that the issues are properly addressed in the measure and in regulation. My first concern relates to proposed subsections (1A)(d) and (e), the exemptions relating to listed buildings and ancient monuments. I hope that the listed buildings exemptions will be the same in regulations under the Bill as they were in previous regulations. However, as a result of the Government’s efforts to tighten up on the risk to revenue from the deliberate destruction of buildings to make them uninhabitable, I am concerned about the many buildings in our constituencies, which have historical qualities and may be listed, ancient monuments or neither, that need exemption from the empty buildings rating regime. I shall give some constituency examples of ruined castles to illustrate my point. I live along the Welsh border and the western half of my constituency borders Wales—an area particularly richly endowed with castles that were built originally to mark the boundary between England and Wales and to ensure the protection of English citizens from the marauding Celts. In my constituency there are a number of castles in a state of what can best be described as disrepair. I am thinking, in particular, of Clun castle and Hopton castle, which are both in my constituency, and Wigmore castle and Brampton Bryan castle, which are just outside my constituency, in the valley where I live. Each of those is, in effect, a ruined castle without a roof.