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Business Rate Supplements Bill

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill). He referred in his opening remarks to his longevity in his post in comparison with my hon. Friend the Minister, who has just assumed her post. I agree, and I wish him even greater longevity in his current post in opposition. He argued initially that my hon. Friend the Minister used the same arguments as the Government had used in the Lords and that the Lords had disagreed with those arguments, and he offered that as a reason for going along with the Lords' position. What he failed to say was that the Minister deployed exactly the same arguments as her colleagues in the Commons did when this matter was debated here—and the Commons agreed with the Government, not the Opposition. Thus, we have a classic situation where the Commons has taken one view and the Lords has taken another, and I believe that the elected Chamber should prevail in those circumstances. The Opposition argue that the business rate supplement is an inappropriate tax to introduce at this time, except in respect of Crossrail. We have heard before that classic illustration of the woolly thinking of the Opposition. If ever there was a scheme that involved a considerable imposition on the business community, it is Crossrail, which is a large and expensive—£16 billion—scheme. The BRS will make a significant contribution to that, albeit less than a third, and payments by business over many years will be involved. If the argument is that this is the wrong time for business to be making a contribution towards infrastructure investment, that argument certainly applies to Crossrail. Of course, as the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst knows perfectly well, business is supportive of Crossrail, rightly believing that the scheme is good for London, for Britain and for business, because it will create the circumstances that will enable economic growth to continue in London. That is why business is wholly supportive of Crossrail. Is it really credible to say that there are obvious benefits that business wants and welcomes from infrastructure investment, such as Crossrail, here in London, but that no such other investment that might be appropriate may be possible anywhere else in the country?