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Non-Domestic Rating (Rates Retention) Regulations 2013

My Lords, I am sure that those of my constituents in the west end of Newcastle who have been glued to BBC Parliament during the course of these 20 minutes will have been enthralled by the presentation. I congratulate the Minister on taking us through an inherently complex, not to say abstruse, area of local government finance and legislation in the clear way he has. I have nothing really to say, he will be relieved to hear—as, no doubt, my constituents will be—about the regulation. It seems eminently sensible.

I want to sound a slight note of warning about the arrangements for enterprise zones. I very much welcome the provisions here, but we will be returning at some later point to the safety net in terms of business rates, which brings to mind the danger that businesses relocating into the enterprise zone will be vacating premises that may stand vacant and not produce a business rate income for the local authority, thereby contributing to the amount—which at the moment stands at 7.5%—above which compensation will be paid. That is not so much in relation to today’s regulations, I have to confess, but I take the opportunity of drawing the Government’s attention to the potential complexities to which these regulations might add and the probable inequity of a limit set at that level. This is just a gentle warning, but I think that in due course a committee will want to revert to that issue. However, in relation to these two sets of regulations, we have no objection.