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Business Rate Supplements Bill

My Lords, I am very grateful for the generous remarks made by the Minister and my noble friend Lord Bates. Yes, we have been arguing this case for some time. However, by arguing the very simple proposition that owners as well as occupiers should be entitled to take part in a BID—something which appears to have been achieved by one and a half lines of print in the proposed new schedule under paragraph 2(6)—we are faced, as my noble friend Lord Bates said, with more than six pages of print in the amendment. I was quite shocked when I saw how much this involved and immediately sought advice. I am sure that Ministers who have been in this position before will recognise that if an amendment is tabled late one week with a view to being debated on the following Monday—in this case, Tuesday—it is exceedingly difficult to get advice over the weekend from those who are concerned with operating the legislation. I am sure that I am not the only one who fired off a lot of e-mails and left telephone messages to try to find out what happened. I declare an interest as a joint president of London Councils; indeed, I was presiding at its annual general meeting this morning. The Minister will recognise that we have here in London a two-tier system for BRS. The levying authority will of course be the Greater London Authority, with the express purpose, as has been said throughout the Bill’s passage, of getting a substantial business contribution towards the Crossrail project. The authority is the levying authority but the boroughs will be the billing authority, and it is very important to draw the distinction between those two functions. It is the London boroughs, represented by London Councils, that are now expressing considerable anxieties about this amendment because of its apparent complexity and, in some cases, obscurity. I bow to the expertise of the noble Lord, Lord Tope, in being able to identify a series of specific questions. However, I discussed this matter this morning with members and officials in London Councils, and they are faced with a considerable problem. This amendment imposes on them as the billing authorities a whole new range of functions and duties once the Greater London Authority, in the person of the mayor, has decided to levy a BRS. That is what is causing me some anxiety. Like my noble friend Lord Bates, I think that the proposal put forward by the noble Lord, Lord Tope, is a good one. During the morning I have been thinking: if the amendment goes into the Bill now, how can we bring the Bill back on Third Reading without in fact tabling more amendments? Perhaps we will want to table amendments, but it is too early to say. The experts in London Councils are busily poring over this to see how it will work. The question they asked me this morning—I could not answer them—was how it is intended to work. One only needs to look through, as I have been doing at the weekend and more recently, the complexities of all the paragraphs in this new schedule. I cannot answer the question of how it will work. I am not sure that I am any the wiser this afternoon despite the Minister’s very patient explanation of what it is about. He told us what it is intended to achieve but he has not been able to tell us—in the time available, as we are anxious to get on to other things—how it will work. I believe that we have a date pencilled in for Third Reading. However, I really do ask that we should have enough time with all the various bodies. That includes not only London Councils. The British Property Federation is an obvious body to consult. The Greater London Authority is clearly involved, because it is relying on the London boroughs as the billing authorities. I have also been in touch with various other bodies. These bodies have been overwhelmed trying to grapple with this very substantial schedule in a few days over the weekend when people were not in the office. The boroughs will inevitably act as pathfinders on these provisions, because once the Bill gains Royal Assent and the mayor has made his proposal for a BRS, it is the boroughs that will be under the time pressures to bring the legislation into effect. Even at first sight, they said that they will be very hard-pressed indeed to get the new systems and software in place to meet the deadlines. The addition of these provisions adds to the uncertainty and threat of delays in an already very tight schedule. I therefore ask the Minister—this might be something that we will need to come back to in more detail on Third Reading—whether he can give an undertaking that this will not extend the time limit or add extra time and cost burdens for the London boroughs acting as billing authorities. I was told this morning that London Councils has been in touch with the Scottish and London BIDs, which have told him that it is not straightforward to consult owners. I have said ever since I introduced the original Private Member’s Bill that I think that it is right that there should be an option to bring in owners. However, I have been told by those who will have to operate this scheme—namely the billing authorities—that this is not wholly straightforward. Suddenly to be confronted, as they were late last week, with this substantial, six-page government amendment, in order to achieve this one little change adding owners to occupiers for the purposes of a BID, makes them feel very hard done by. The Minister needs to recognise that. I have sought to defend the proposal on the grounds that we wanted the option of adding owners to occupiers in BIDs. However, I could not possibly have anticipated that it would take six pages of legislation which was presented to this House less than a week—indeed, five days—before we were expected to debate it. This is not the way to legislate. The Minister made it perfectly clear in Grand Committee that the Government have been minded to do this since Nick Raynsford moved the amendment in another place. Therefore, there seems to have been an astonishing dilatoriness in getting the amendment before this House. In those circumstances, I support the suggestion that the Minister might feel it right not to press the amendment on Report today but to re-table it, perhaps in the light of discussions that he and his officials may have over the next few days with, for instance, London Councils, so that we might consider it within a reasonable timescale and add it to the Bill before it receives Royal Assent. That is the least that we can ask in the circumstances. I apologise if I appear to be overcritical but, having been faced this morning with the anxiety of London Councils—of which the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, the noble Lord, Lord Graham of Edmonton, and I are the joint presidents—I feel it right that we should represent to the House the very real anxieties that it feels about the administration of this complex schedule. I hope the Minister will be able to respond to the valuable suggestion of the noble Lord, Lord Tope, so as to give us more time to consider these details.