§ Mr. BaldryTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what steps he proposes to take to ensure the harmonisation of the decapitalisation rates used for rating assessment in Great Britain.
§ Mr. RidleyMy right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Scotland and Wales and I propose that, to assist the harmonisation of rating, we should use our powers to prescribe common decapitalisation rates to be used throughout Great Britain in the 1990 revaluation for properties valued by reference to the cost of construction. The evidence suggests that the rate should be set somewhere in the range 6 to 7 per cent., although a lower rate may be justified for certain educational and health care establishments valued on this basis. We shall be issuing a consultation paper shortly.