Enterprise Bill [HL]

Lord Stoneham of Droxford Excerpts

Monday 2nd November 2015 Grand Committee

[Lord Stevenson of Balmacara]

My Lords, I have been beguiling the Committee with the fact that I have had to act for several other proposers of amendments because sicknesses have left us a bit bereft. On this occasion, I can switch track slightly because here we are doing a decent thing in allowing some amendments on valuation to be debated on behalf of someone who cannot be present which I think he would certainly have tabled if he were here. We agree with them, so we have tabled them in our own right.

The noble Earl, Lord Lytton, has provided us with a brief which I will be drawing heavily on. However, as with the other amendments, I do not have the expertise to do justice to some of their individual elements. I suggest to the Committee that we take all the amendments that relate to valuation and the Valuation Office Agency together, which, if we do it cleverly and efficiently, will take us neatly to the witching hour of 7.30 pm, when we will be able to feel that we have done a good job. I will be imposing heavily on the good will of the civil servants briefing the Minister, but I hope that that will be sufficient. I am joined by the noble Lord, Lord Stoneham, who has put his name to one of the amendments.

The issue that unites all the amendments is that everybody involved in valuation agrees that the current arrangements for the business rates system, particularly the appeal system, are simply unsustainable. What is missing from the Bill is a balance between the need to remove ill-founded and speculative appeals with the need to preserve fair access to justice for those who feel that they have a case to argue.

At the heart of this, unifying all the amendments, is information, although I will speak specifically to the question of festivals, which arises in Amendment 52R. Therefore, most of my remarks will be about the generality of the VOA and how we may deal with it in future, but I will spend a few minutes on festivals.

We have drawn on work done by the Federation of Small Businesses, which also feels strongly about this. I think there is an alliance out there on this issue, and I look forward to hearing the Minister’s response.

Amendment 52F and those which are grouped with it, Amendments 52H to 52K and 52N, relate to whether information currently withheld by the VOA should be made available to those who have a genuine interest. I will not say much more than that, because that seems to be a point of fairness rather than a point of law: those who are being rated and having rates applied to them should be able to know the basis of that and to make judgments with their professional advisers fully informed.

Amendment 52G moves us to the billing authority and makes provision for disclosure of information about issues relating to a business improvement district scheme, which is a slightly different point but involves the same issue, which is that there is unlikely to be any way to judge what the non-domestic rates yield would be in a BID if you do not have access to that information. Again, limited disclosure would be in the best interests of all concerned.

There is no provision for an ADR ombudsman or other suitable arrangement in the VOA system, and Amendments 52L and 52P suggest that that gap needs to be filled. We would be grateful if the Minister would take that into account. Because of the way in which the UK has implemented the ADR legislation, a range of options is open, and we are not producing one solution against another, but it is fairly clear that there should be an outlet to an external agency such as an ombudsman.

The question of appeals more generally is raised in Amendment 52Q, in which we are also joined by the noble Lord, Lord Stoneham. The proposal in the Bill is that there should be an upfront fee for any appeal. That seems an odd thing to require. The people who will likely be most affected are small businesses, particularly those who are struggling to get started. It does not seem in the best interests of enterprise to require fees to be paid upfront which will not necessarily be returned if an obvious injustice is being done and redress for justice denied is not being provided.

On the question of festivals, we have become aware of the fact that the VOA has begun to raise invoices and seek money from people who have used agricultural land and buildings for cultural events and festivals. One can understand that, when previously rarely used assets are being used for a different purpose, there is obviously a question of whether fair taxation is being applied. It would be hard to argue that using land that was not being used for anything else for a business activity would raise a rateable question.

I hope that the amendment will set off in the Minister’s mind the suggestion that there is something a bit bizarre about constantly asking farmers and others to develop new ways of raising income and then, when they find one in the readymade form of a festival ready to come in on the site, not only to require them to pay rates for it but also to have a retrospective element. That seems rather unfair. I hope that, if only on the question of equity, the Minister might consider favourably the suggestion made by the festivals group that there should be no backdating. The situation may have changed, but that does not necessarily mean that those one-off festivals that have happened should suddenly be faced with very substantial Bills—we are talking about £50,000 or £60,000—when people have budgeted on the basis that there would be no such cost. In future, consideration should be given to some form of derogation for short-lived festivals of this type, when clearly there are economic benefits to the whole of the country and to the locality, and a good cultural effect that would be completely lost if the cost exceeded the income. We might be cutting off our noses to spite our faces. I would be grateful if the Minister could consider the amendment. I beg to move.

[Lord Stoneham of Droxford (LD)]

The noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, has masterfully summarised the amendments. I put my name to Amendments 52F and 52P in the interests of trying to improve the processes. In the interest of brevity and trying to improve the timescale, I am happy to give my support formally.

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

I thank my noble friends for proposing these amendments with such swiftness and efficiency, and I shall try to do them justice. The noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, has done fantastic work today in covering so many areas that are usually addressed by others on the Front Bench. As always, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Stoneham, for his involvement.

I appreciate that there are concerns, which I share, that an effective business rates system should be based on businesses having a good understanding of their tax bill, underpinned by shared and transparent information. The amendments are about sharing information with the payer. Business rates are determined by taking account of a comparison with other properties. However, it follows from this that the Valuation Office Agency collects and holds commercially sensitive data. For example, it may hold information on the precise terms of rental agreements reached for a group of properties. The VOA has a legitimate duty to protect that information and the interests of the ratepayers who have provided it. That is in everybody’s interests, so we make no apology for having a rigorous system for handling and protecting sensitive information, an important general principle in life.