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Business Rate Supplements Bill

It is a most perverse situation. Ministers in the Department for Communities and Local Government do not seem to be able to grasp the fact that landlords can also be competitors, and that that creates a perverse incentive. The Minister referred to this as basic rating finance under the normal system. Well, if this is the normal system, it is wrong, and we need to ensure that it is not rolled out into other areas as an extension of the rating system. My hon. Friend is right, as he always is on these matters. It cannot be right that people who might be subject to a BRS should be liable to the same injustice that has been identified in relation to a number of firms in Humberside. An example is Freshney Cargo Services Ltd, which has had a 1,700 per cent. increase in its rateable value. It is now going to have to pay bills backdated a number of years that are significantly more than its annual turnover, never mind its profits. It is really going to struggle. This is happening to honest, reputable firms that would pay a BRS honestly if the situation arose, and that pay their rates honestly. They have not misled anyone, and they are not responsible for any fault or concealment, yet they are being penalised. The kind of redress that they are being given—which might be offered under a BRS scheme, I suppose—is wholly inadequate, because it leaves them potentially balance sheet insolvent and with real burdens placed on them. These firms are important. The one that I have mentioned employs about 40 staff directly, and has about 100 people dependent on it. It is ironic that the Bill is being presented as a means of improving economic regeneration and business activity. It is also ironic that responsibility for the Bill lies not only with the Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, the hon. Member for Portsmouth, North (Sarah McCarthy-Fry) but with the Minister for Regional Economic Development and Co-ordination whose double-hatted job involves her working not only in the Department for Communities and Local Government but in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. It is extraordinary that a lady who is responsible for economic development should be presiding over a Bill that will shut down businesses. As we do not seem to be getting much response from her boss in the Department for Communities and Local Government, I would have hoped that her other boss, in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, might have come up with an alternative solution. This is simply not joined-up government. It is ironic that that same Minister is presiding over a measure that is going to put firms out of business. That just does not make sense, and to refuse to listen to the very reasoned debate in their lordships' House potentially extends the anomaly and injustice elsewhere. With respect, the suggestion that the amendment would set a dangerous precedent is wrong. A fair point has been made about the unique cumulo system in relation to ports rating. There is no danger of unscrambling the whole system. To include the risk of further injustice in the business rates system is just wrong. Lest people think that this is a fanciful situation, let me tell the House that if all local authorities were to implement BRS schemes, it would raise considerable sums of money. However, great damage is being done by backdating purely in relation to ports. In the port of Hull alone, the sector is being clobbered by a bill for something like £25 million. In Liverpool, the figure is £22 million; in Immingham, it is £19 million; and in Cardiff, it is £1.6 million. No wonder those areas feel that the Government are letting them down. I feel sorry for the Labour Back Benchers who have tried to raise this issue and been thoroughly brushed off by their own Ministers. That is pretty shabby treatment.