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Business Rate Supplements Bill

My Lords, I welcome the noble Lord to his position. It is Third Reading and we are on to our third Minister. It is good to see him in his place and I am grateful for the introduction that he gave. These are obviously consequential amendments. I was a little puzzled as to what was happening here. The original Clause 4(c) was 30 words and the amended wording is 18, and the original wording related to Clause 8, "Approval by ballot", which sets out that the majority is absolutely necessary. But if this is the advice of officials, certainly we are happy with it. Unlike the noble Lord, we fully support the protection afforded to businesses by giving them a ballot in all cases as a result of the amendment put forward last week on Report. Therefore, we welcome these amendments as far as they go.