Clause 2

Part of Planning-gain Supplement (Preparations) Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 12:45 pm on 30 January 2007.

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Photo of John Healey John Healey The Financial Secretary to the Treasury 12:45, 30 January 2007

I welcome the hon. Member for West Chelmsford and his reinforcement of the efforts made by the hon. Member for Rayleigh from the Front Bench, although I think that the hon. Member for Rayleigh has been doing a pretty good job. I shall try to give him an explanation. The proposal for a planning gain supplement would be UK-wide. However, this Bill does not specify Scotland, because preparatory expenditure needing new powers under this Bill would not be incurred by the Scottish Executive. The agencies  requiring those preparatory expenditure powers are Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, the Valuation Office Agency and, because the VOA does not operate in Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Departments.

My hon. Friend the Member for Linlithgow and East Falkirk is right that section 75 is a devolved matter. It remains a devolved matter and would remain a devolved matter if we introduce a planning gain supplement. The devolved Administrations would keep all revenues raised in their country under a planning gain supplement. Clearly, they would then have the discretion to deploy those revenues to support infrastructure and growth in whatever way they choose. That is properly a devolved discussion that they need to have and are having with their local authorities, which is the principle of devolution. There have been, as members of the Committee would expect, detailed discussions involving Government in both the Treasury and HMRC, and the Scottish Executive and the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Executive clearly have a very active interest, given their devolved responsibility for planning. I say clearly, however, to the hon. Member for Rayleigh and to the rest of the Committee that we do not have any proposal to test the PGS a year early in Scotland, as happened in the case of the poll tax.