Non-Domestic Rating (Alteration of Lists and Appeals) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2017 — House of Lords, 2017-09-11
Topic: Government Operations
Jeremy Hugh Beecham (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I defer to the noble Earl’s long experience in dealing with issues of this kind, as would many other Members of your Lordships’ House. His professional background is obviously important I declare my interests as a Newcastle city councillor and as an honorary vice-president of the Local Government Association. Over the years as a councillor, like many other of your Lordships who have served in that capacity, I have become familiar with the current rating system The complexity of the situation facing us is most clearly illustrated by the title of the documents that we are supposed to be debating: the Non-Domestic Rating (Alteration of Lists and Appeals) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2017 and the Valuation Tribunal for England (Council Tax and Rating Appeals) (Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations 2017. The titles are enough to deter almost anyone from looking any further into the matter—that, of course, is entirely the Government’s responsibility and not that of the noble Earl There is a history to this, particularly to the process we have just gone through. The noble Earl referred to the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee’s report, and it is unfortunate that, once again, the committee has had to draw attention to the Government’s failure, frankly, to behave responsibly in relation to dealing with secondary legislation. I refer to paragraphs 9 and 10 of its report. Paragraph 9 states: "In our view, now that the Regulations have been laid before Parliament, the Department should make all the consultation responses available" It is remarkable that it did not do so at that time. The committee concluded by saying: "We understand the sequence of events that preceded the laying of the Regulations, but we find it very regrettable that the Government have curtailed the opportunity for effective Parliamentary scrutiny in order to salvage their own timetable" Time and time again, Members from all sides of the House have complained about the way in which the Government are dealing with secondary legislation, which is potentially a hot issue given what is happening now at the other end of the Corridor in relation to Europe. I hope the Government will improve on this approach in future On the substance of the matters, the noble Earl referred to the substantial amount of money that local authorities estimated had been lost in having still 225,000 appeals outstanding as at 30 June. Obviously, quite a substantial number had been dealt with, but it is a long time since these evaluations were made and it is a terrible failure on the part of the Government not to have been able to ensure that there is a process which councils could deal with. The problem for councils is that they have to put substantial amounts of money aside—some £2.5 billion, according to the Local Government Association—against the risk of losing appeals which have been running on for years. It is an intolerable situation, and one hopes that it will not continue under the new system. Perhaps the Minister can give us some assurances in that respect.