Rating Reform (Hansard, 9 November 1987)

§ Mr. Fraser
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he intends to revise the rateable value limits for the purpose of enfranchisement under the Leasehold Reform Act 1967(a) on the merits and (b) in the light of the proposed community charge.

§ Mr. Howard
I have no plans at this stage to extend the scope of leasehold enfranchisement for houses, but I propose to issue shortly a consultation paper on the implications for the Leasehold Reform Act 1967 and other landlord and tenant legislation of the proposed abolition of domestic rates.

§ Mr. Rooker
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will give an estimate of the effect of a poll tax compared with domestic rates on the proportion8W of net income in households with incomes of (a) £50 to £150 per week and (b) £50 to £200 per week; and if he will give the proportion such households are of the total.

§ Mr. Howard
Based on data from the family expenditure survey in 1985–86 prices, households with a net income of between £50 and £150 per week in England would pay 3.9 per cent. of that income in rates. With the full community charge, this would fall to 3.6 per cent. With net incomes of between £50 and £200, the corresponding figures are 3.7 per cent. and 3.5 per cent. Fourty-three per cent. and 61 per cent. respectively of households fall within these income bands.

§ Mr. Rooker
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will limit the starting age for payment of poll tax to the same age as for entitlement to legal minimum rates of pay.

§ Mr. Howard
No.

§ Mr. Rooker
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what form of requirement will be placed upon landlords collecting inclusive rent and rates to disaggregate the rent element following the introduction of poll tax.

§ Mr. Howard
When the community charge is fully in place, domestic rates will have disappeared. The concept of "inclusive rent and rates" will, therefore, no longer apply.

§ Mr. Rooker
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish a table showing how his estimates for poll tax for each local authority are influenced by his proposals for a unified business rate, giving figures for poll tax with existing pattern of non-domestic rates and poll tax with a unified business rate.

§ Mr. Howard
It is a central feature of the new system that authorities spending at the level of their assessed need will be able to levy a common level of community charge, taking account of their income from grant and from the national non-domestic rate. If the uniform non-domestic rate poundage were not to apply—and it too is an essential part of the system—it would be necessary to adjust grant payments in order to preserve the position that variations in authorities' spending above or below the standard community charge were met entirely by residents.