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Business Rate Supplements Bill

My Lords, I did not take part in the debate in Grand Committee. I have of course received the briefing from the Local Government Association suggesting that there should not be ballots in all cases. When I told someone who was arguing that there should be ballots in all cases that the Local Government Association does not want that, they gave the Mandy Rice-Davies answer: "Well, they would say that, wouldn’t they?". That is the position I have come to. The argument advanced by the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, and my noble friend on the Front Bench is right as a matter of principle. There should be ballots in those circumstances. It is not enough for the local authority to say, "We believe that it is in the interest of the business community that we introduce these improvements and charge property holders and occupiers with more than £50,000 rateable value the business rate supplement to pay for it". They should go to those people to ask them, not just as a consultation but to say, "If you support this, do so in a ballot". If the majority both by value and by number of occupiers of votes yes—as it is put in the clause, if A is greater than B—it would go ahead. If more than a third are involved, there will have to be a ballot anyway, but where less than a third are involved, I think the authority should ask the occupiers in a ballot whether they approve of and will vote for it. That is the same principle—no doubt we will come to this later—as we had for business improvement districts. In the BIDs, there was always going to be a ballot of the occupiers. We now know that that can be extended in certain circumstances to the owners as well. The ballot was an essential part of that mechanism. So should it be in the business rate supplement. I support the amendments and I hope that, on reflection, the Government may feel able to accept them.