Clause 15
Business Rate Supplements Bill
6:30 pm
Bob Neill (Shadow Minister, Communities and Local Government; Bromley and Chislehurst, Conservative)
I just want to give the Minister the opportunity to come back to the point that I sought to raise earlier. I am grateful for what he says about the flexibility measures—the taper and the threshold setting—that are intended to be given in the form of reliefs. Perhaps the Minister in his reply will pick up the point that I sought to raise via the hon. Member for North Cornwall. When the right hon. Gentleman says that under this provision the local authority will be able to set a threshold that is higher than £50,000, is that without prejudice to the statement on page 14 of the impact assessment:
“To provide consistency this threshold will be standardised across England”?
Is it the case that the minimum guaranteed protection—I see nods from those who advise the Minister—is £50,000 but that a local authority will have the flexibility to increase that protection if circumstances in its area so warrant? Such recognition of the situation would be useful and would come as some reassurance on that point.