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Business Rate Supplements Bill

My Lords, I support the amendments that have been spoken to by the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, and will speak to Amendment 16A, which is in my name and that of my noble friend Lord Cathcart. I will deal with the broad principle of what we are looking at here. Having businesses involved in the process from beginning to end, at every stage—and not only in the consultation process, which will take place before a ballot of businesses—is important for two or three reasons. First, it is just good practice for people to contribute to the scheme. The Minister referred to giving comfort to banks if capital-raising was involved in the scheme. The banks might take comfort from various aspects of the difficulties involved in raising additional funds. I would have thought that the banks would certainly be comforted to see strong representation on the board of the body—whether it is a committee or council—of the business community. This shows that it is not just paying lip service and that they are there not only as token representation but to give meaningful input. The business community brings great expertise in the whole area of financial management, project management and procurement. If the objective of this legislation is economic regeneration, as the Government keep reinforcing, surely there are no better people to articulate what will work in improving the business environment than the businesses themselves. We would like to see that. We had a detailed debate on this in Committee. Several points were raised. Essentially, they distilled down to the purpose of this amendment. The Minister gave pretty categorical assurances, as the record will show, that there would be absolutely no question but that businesses would be expected to be involved from start to finish. She reiterated at col. GC 521 on 18 May 2009 that this was the case. Her expectation was that businesses would be involved at every stage. Our response was, perhaps, a fraction prescient. We said that, although a clear assurance was given by the Minister at the time and she is absolutely trustworthy on these matters, Ministers move from time to time, at the behest of the Prime Minister and to other opportunities in government. Therefore, one of the advantages of having such a provision in the Bill is that it will give some continuity. In many ways, that concern has been reinforced in light of the events that we have heard about. Amendment 16A recommends two things. First, it mentions accounts being made available for the project as a whole and to keep the budget in check. That would be sensible. Those elements are really the only two that add anything to the amendments that have been tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee. As well as the financial statements, it recommends representation on the board, which should be regarded as entirely helpful. It is something that, in Committee, the Minister gave the warmest possible support to, in principle. Perhaps, when the Minister responds, he will make similar warm noises. I am afraid that for the reasons I have outlined, the structure for the engagement of the business community in the project throughout is so important that it should be in the Bill, and I give notice that if the Minister’s response to Amendment 16A proves unsatisfactory, I will test the opinion of the House.