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Business Rate Supplements Bill

My Lords, I acknowledge that the stage at which Schedule 2 was introduced during the process of the Bill produces challenges, and there has not been a lot of time. I would plead before I respond that I have had even less time to grapple with its complexities. The noble Lord, Lord Jenkin of Roding, was right in his description of what the schedule seeks to do: effectively, it is to introduce a third levy—a BRS-BID levy—that would operate when a BRS or a BID was in place or approved. The focus would be on owners of properties rather than on occupiers.