Business Rate Supplements Bill
12:00 pm
Mr. Khan: Under the terms of the statutory consultation required, a local authority would need to persuade businesses that it had exhausted all other avenues of funding and state what other income streams there are and what its plans are, and it would have to persuade businesses to join. Some almost pejorative comments were made about consultation by witnesses on Tuesday, but let us be clear that there is a statutory requirement to consult. Forget the ballot, which is stage 2 of consultation if it is more than one third. Consultation would iron out some of the problems you have identified. If businesses felt that they were being made to pay a stealth tax, that would come out during the process, and if a local authority still steamrolled ahead, it could be challenged. As John has just said, we will be publishing the full first session, which should hopefully assure you that this is not a backroom way of turning business into a cash cow.