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Business Rate Supplements Bill

My Lords, I do not think that the noble Lord will be surprised that I am not with him on this one—as we were not in the Commons. Actually, I wrote against the first of his amendments, "So you don’t support the Lyons review". I am not sure whether that is an entirely fair response—or perhaps it is a fair but incomplete response. We have made it clear throughout the debates on this Bill that we support the concept; were that not so, I would not have been seeking to extend the provisions of the Bill in the way that I just have. This is not just about London. One gets rather weary of people outside London thinking that those of us who live in this particular bubble are really only concerned about London. I do not want to be London-centric on this one. This Bill provides a mechanism which may not be used next week or next year by local authorities outside the capital—sadly it is not available to be used by the London boroughs because of the way this is constructed, but there we are—but a mechanism which I hope local authorities will find ways that perhaps none of us has thought of to use the BRS for the benefit both of their business community and their wider community. I think that the amendment goes against the whole concept of the Bill to confine it in the way that the noble Lord suggests.