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Business Rate Supplements Bill

I fear that what the Minister said was not correct. The principle of the argument that we are urging applies to port operators. The principle of the previous legislation, as set out in regulation 5(3) of statutory instrument No. 2303 of 1989, was that all operational land of a harbour or dock undertaking was to be treated as a separate hereditament, irrespective of whether the property would otherwise form several separate hereditaments, or part of a single, larger hereditament. That principle was confirmed in the legal action that the Valuation Office Agency began against Grimsby Fish Dock Enterprises in 2002. One cannot split a single hereditament in the case of docks, or when the owner controls the access. That is what is happening. There are attempts to split the docks into separate hereditaments, and those are the ones—