Local Government Bill
11:45 am
Lord Hanningfield (Conservative)
My Lords, I thank the Minister for those comments. Before I was a member of this House—I am wearing my LGA hat—I remember meeting the then Minister of State for local government, Hilary Armstrong, and talking about revaluation. I agree that the LGA as a body has talked about revaluation. Hilary Armstrong said that no way would the Labour Government make the same mistake as the Conservative government and have a revaluation as that led to the community charge/poll tax as a result of the tremendous variation and changes after revaluation.
I also remember the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, saying in Grand Committee that he did not want to make the same mistakes as the Conservative government. Here the government are falling into the biggest trap of all with revaluation. Having begun to assess what a revaluation means, having seen Sir Robin Wales, the leader of the ALG, this week, and having done more work ourselves on the effects of revaluation on great chunks of the country, we feel that much more thought needs to go into this before we agree to a blanket revaluation. Therefore, we feel that we should test the opinion of the House.