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Council Tax Capping (Surrey)

It is a pleasure to respond to the debate in your company, Mr. Weir. It appears that half the Opposition Front Benchers have taken the trouble to turn up today to wish me well in my reinstatement as a Minister. I am touched, and I thank them. I congratulate the hon. Member for Mole Valley (Sir Paul Beresford) on securing this debate, which is our second in the past few weeks. I should begin by explaining the background of how we got to our present position in relation to Surrey police authority. The Government have made it clear in every year since 2004-05 that we will take capping action against excessive council tax increases. That followed successive years of high increases early in the decade, which happened despite the generous grant increases that authorities received from the Government. That culminated in an average band D increase in England of 12.9 per cent. in 2003-04. Surrey police authority took the opportunity that year to set an increase of 40.1 per cent. I am sure that all hon. Members agree that such increases—