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Business Rate Supplements Bill
10:00 am
Philip Dunne (Whip, Whips; Ludlow, Conservative)
I seek your guidance, Mrs. Dean, on whether now is the appropriate point to raise an issue, because I could not find what seemed an appropriate moment anywhere else in the Bill. Please guide me properly if I stray out of order.
It is quite proper that the potentially large sums being raised for substantial projects over a prolonged period should be accounted for. The schedule sets the rules under which the accounting would work, but I see nothing in the Bill that identifies where the accounting information goes or the extent to which that is made public to either the levy payers or the citizens in the area who are subject to the scheme. In particular, there is nothing to show the progress relating to the expenditure of these sums or whether the project is on budget, according to the estimate made at the outset.
A lot of clauses refer to the preparatory phase and to setting up a levy, but there is little about monitoring the levy during the period of its operation until such time as a refund may apply—at the end of it. There seems to be a lacuna in the middle. Will the Minister say how that will be dealt with?