§ Mr. HunterTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make it his policy not to remove industrial rates relief before electricity prices in Northern Ireland are more in line with those in the rest of the United Kingdom. [88920]
§ Mr. PearsonArising out of the current Review of Rating Policy and as outlined in the recently published consultation report I have made a decision in principle428W to abolish industrial derating. What I am still considering is how best to achieve this without causing harm to business.
There are two ways I intend to approach this. Firstly, by phasing out derating gradually and secondly by providing a hardship scheme to minimise adverse impacts on vulnerable firms or sectors.
I do not think it would be right to use the tax base as a means of compensating for higher energy costs. Some sectors are affected much more than others and tariffs vary and are changing. We are looking at this whole area and it is my wish that the cost differential is brought down, well before the existing contracts expire.
The intention is to publish a policy paper early in the new year on this issue which will set out clearly a limited number of options for implementing change.