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Business Rate Supplements Bill

Clearly the certainty that we are looking for may be contained in the word "require". My argument is that there is an uncertainty about trying to predict what is likely to happen in the future for businesses that might become liable because we cannot predict revaluation and so on. It is because of the difficulty in predicting who might become liable that we want to leave it to the discretion of the levying authority to make the right judgment for its area. That is why the Bill is drafted in the way that it is. For example, if there were a number of businesses in an area who occupy premises with a rateable value of £49,500, they at first would not be liable for a BRS; but if the levying authority intends to levy its BRS for 15 years, it is quite likely that those businesses will become liable for BRS in its lifetime because there would be at least two revaluations during that lifetime. Therefore we would expect the levying authority to use its discretion and consult those businesses which are on the margin from the outset. But if the project is going to take a longer time, for example, more than 15 years, businesses occupying premises with a significantly lower rateable value now might in due course see their rateable value approaching the £50,000 threshold. But they might not—it is a hard judgement to make—and this is why Clause 6(5) states that, in considering which other persons should be consulted, the authority must consider whether to consult those who might become liable. We have introduced that degree of flexibility and discretion into the Bill.