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Business Rate Supplements Bill

I congratulate the Government on agreeing in another place this series of amendments, which provide a satisfactory and elegant solution to a real problem, which was the potential adverse impact of BRS on BIDs in areas where BIDs are in existence or due to be brought into existence in the foreseeable future, and where a ballot could well have been lost because those paying the BRS levy might have decided that it would not be fair for them also to have to pay an additional levy to support the BID. I shall not go over the history. My hon. Friend the Minister explained that it was a subject of considerable debate in the House earlier this year when we first considered the Bill. The amendment introduced in the Lords goes further than the one that I moved, and I welcome the way in which that has been improved. Specifically, it tackles the issue of areas where BIDs are proposed but not yet in existence, whereas my amendment was limited to areas where BIDs were in existence. I recognise that that was a defect, which the hon. Member for North Cornwall (Dan Rogerson) highlighted in the debate in the House. I acknowledged that at the time so I am delighted that the Government have found a formulation that allows the new provision to cover areas where BIDs are proposed but not yet in existence. It also includes provision to reassure tenants that the owner levy will not be passed on to them through rent. Again, that was a cause of some concern among BID levy payers—that the landowner would try to pass on the full cost of the landowner levy. The Government have addressed the issue in a manner that has improved the amendment, which we debated a while ago in this House, and I very much welcome what is now in the Bill. I add one caveat only, on an issue to which my hon. Friend the Minister referred: the need at some stage to consider extending the provision to cover those areas where there is not a BRS, but where BIDs exist. The principle of landowners contributing to BIDs has been an issue since BIDs were introduced in the early years of this century. We had a debate at the time, and some parties strongly advocated the adoption of the American system, whereby the property owner rather than the tenant pays the levy. I, as the then Minister, believed that creating the register of landowners would have caused substantial upheaval and set back the process, and could have resulted in many abortive costs arising in areas where the register had to be compiled despite there being no proposal for a BID. Given those circumstances, it seems sensible to proceed on the basis of the existing rating system in this country, where the tenant pays the business rate but owners are encouraged to make voluntary contributions. Some have but others have not, and there is a natural worry about freeloading, whereby substantial property owners in a particular area get the benefit of improvements that a BID brings but do not contribute towards it. The issue still exists, and, although I fully understand my hon. Friend's reasons why, within the remit of the Bill, it was not possible to extend the provision before us to other BID areas, the problem will need to be considered again. I hope that the Government will, in due course, find a suitable legislative vehicle to allow the same formulation to be applied more generally to all BIDs. With that one caveat, I greatly welcome the amendment. It has made an important improvement to the legislation, and it will enable BIDs to continue successfully in many areas where they have made a big impact and whose existence might otherwise be threatened by the introduction of BRS.