§ Mr. David EvansTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish the report of the expert advisory committee chaired by Mr. Derek Wood QC which has reviewed the rating of plant and machinery.
§ Mr. RedwoodThe Secretary of State has, together with my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, published the Wood committee report as a command paper and placed copies in the Library of the House. We are grateful to the chairman and members of the Committee for the thorough way in which they have investigated the rating of plant and machinery. They invited written evidence from a wide range of interested bodies and business ratepayers and received responses from 71 of them, some of whom also gave oral evidence. Members of the Committee also undertook a series of visits to different types of industrial plants.
The report is the first comprehensive review of the subject to be undertaken for over 30 years. The recommendations deal with how the rating of plant and machinery can be made more consistent with the rating valuation hypothesis and on the means to achieve harmonisation of the rating of plant and machinery throughout the United Kingdom. Specific recommendations remove anomalies and delete obsolete and 272W tautologous references in the current rules. The report also suggests that valuations of plant and machinery using the contractor's basis should employ the unit cost method currently adopted in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Government would welcome views on the report by 12 May before considering the extent to which its conclusions should be implemented for the 1995 revaluation of non-domestic property. In due course, we will undertake full consultation on the necessary implementing legislation.