HC Deb 08 November 1971 vol 825 cc63-4W
Mr. Michael McNair-Wilson

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment when the Government intend to set up a committee of inquiry into the rating of plant and machinery as foreshadowed in the Green Paper on Local Government Finance.

Mr. Graham Page

The Secretary of State for Scotland and my right hon. Friend have now appointed a technical committee to examine the anomalies which it has been suggested may exist in the way in which plant and machinery is taken into account in valuation for rating.

The chairman of the committee will be Mr. E. S. McNairn, C.B., who, until he retired, was a member of the Board of Inland Revenue. The committee will also include an industrialist, a chartered surveyor, two local authority officers and two officers from the Departments concerned. They will be assisted as assessors by a valuer from the Inland Revenue Valuation Office and a Scottish Lands Valuation assessor.

The terms of reference are: To review in the light of present conditions the effect of Class 4 of the Plant and Machinery (Rating) Order 1960 for England and Wales on the relative rate burden falling on various types of industrial hereditament; to consider what changes might be made to Class 4 to reduce any inconsistencies in the relative rate burden which may be found, to consider the implications of any proposed changes for Scotland and to make recommendations ". The committee will investigate and present to the Ministers concerned the facts and arguments about the relative rate burdens within industry. They will not be concerned with the burden of rates on industry relative to that on other categories of ratepayers. When the committee have reported the Government will consider whether, as a result of the committee's recommendations, any changes need to be made in the law relating to rates.

The committee hope to be able to report in the late Spring of 1972. They are now ready to receive evidence. They will be inviting evidence from professional institutions and representative industrial and local government associations.