Industrial and Commercial Rates

HC Deb 20 January 1982 vol 16 cc267-8

7. Mr. Marlow

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will introduce legislation to provide for a ceiling on the level of industrial and commercial rates.

Mr. King

I have no plans to do so. Legislation to set a ceiling on increases in business rates would not necessarily achieve our aim of getting high-spending local authorities to reduce the level of their spending, and could in certain circumstances lead to intolerable burdens on the domestic ratepayer.

Mr. Marlow

Will my right hon. Friend change his plans—if he has nothing to do at the moment—because the Government had proposed that there should be a cut-off point for rate increases that could be imposed on business and commercial ratepayers? That would have made local authorities that were seeking extortionate rate increases impose them on those who, by their votes, could get rid of those authorities, rather than on the commercial and industrial ratepayer, whose only recourse is to go out of business.

Mr. King

My hon. Friend will understand that our earlier proposal involved transferring the burden to the domestic ratepayer, who had the opportunity to register his opinion through a local poll. We felt that without that protection, it would not be fair to transfer that burden to the domestic ratepayer. Business and industry will benefit considerably from protection against supplementary rates, which did great damage last year. Indeed, there was a prospect of further supplementary rates being demanded this year.

Mr. Stephen Ross

Does the Minister accept that there is a case for some industrial derating, particularly for new small businesses in areas that are not assisted in England and Wales? For instance, there is still industrial derating in Scotland. Why cannot that apply in parts of England and Wales?

Mr. King

There are always arguments for exemptions and reliefs. They have been considered by successive Governments at different times. We conducted experiments in the form of enterprise zones in which we provided total relief from rates. We are monitoring those experiments closely.