§ Ms. ShortTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether community charge regulations enable poll tax arrears and payments to be deducted at source from the payments made to(a) non-employed trainees and (b) employed trainees; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. ChopeWhere a charging authority has obtained a liability order—that is, an order under regulation 29 of the Community Charges (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1989—in respect of arrears of community charge, it may make an attachment of earnings order under regulation 32 of those regulations. Such an order requires the employer to make deductions from the debtor's earnings. For these purposes "earnings" has the meaning given in section 24 of the Attachment of Earnings Act 1971. Since an attachment of earnings order can operate only where there is an employer-employee relationship, payments made to non-employed trainees378W cannot be the subject of such an order. To the extent that the pay of employed trainees falls within the definition of "earnings" in the 1971 Act, it is attachable.
§ Mr. Harry BarnesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what information he holds on current local authority charges in England and Wales concerning the collective community charge; and what was the equivalent level of rates for 1989–90.
§ Mr. ChopeContributors to the collective community charge are liable to pay the same amount (on a daily basis) as the amount set for the personal community charge in that area. The amounts reported to the Department for each authority's average charge for 1990–91 were placed in the Library of the House on 18 April 1990, together with a comparison with the average rate bill in 1989–90. Local authorities estimated that as at 1 December 1989 the number of people liable to contribute to the collective community charge over a full year reduced by 5 per cent. to cover the cost of collection to which the landlords are entitled was 30,000.
§ Mr. David PorterTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make it his policy to review the community charge in the light of experience and representation in respect of(a) joint and several liability and (b) second home charge where it is a second home only because it is for sale.
§ Mr. David HuntWe continue to keep all aspects of local government finance policy under review. On second homes, I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Gillingham (Mr. Couchman) on 21 March,Official Report, column 658. In particular, we have prescribed that local authorities may not levy a standard charge for at least three months where a property is unoccupied and substantially unfurnished. This is similar to the arrangements under domestic rates.
§ Mr. MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is his most up-to-date assessment of the numbers of local authorities in England which are charging standard community charge on empty properties at(a) the single rate, (b) the double rate, (c) zero rate, (d) 0.5 rate and (e) 1.5 rate.
§ Mr. ChopeI refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester (Mr. French) on 20 April,Official Report, column 1033.
§ Mr. MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what assessment he has made of the effect of the current levels of standard community charge levied on empty properties on(a) inter-regional labour mobility, (b) regional economic development and (c) the housing market.
§ Mr. ChopeWe have given charging authorities the discretion to set standard charge multipliers for properties in their area at 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5 or 2 times the personal community charge. We have prescribed nine categories of property in respect of which no standard charge is payable and two where the multiplier may not exceed unity. As with domestic rates, we have prescribed that no standard charge is payable in respect of unoccupied, unfurnished properties until three months after they become unoccupied. Authorities have wide discretion to specify 379W additional classes of property which enables them to respond to local factors. This discretion contrasts with the lack of such discretion that existed under domestic rates.
§ Mr. HardyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will give such information as he has available on(a) the sums which will be received from standard community charge in each local authority in England during 1990–91 and (b) which authorities are not charging at the level of twice the personal community charge.