§ Mr. Peter AtkinsonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what assessment his Department has made of the cost implications for small businesses of the recommendations of the Wood committee report on the rating of plant and machinery. [36946]
§ Sir Paul BeresfordThe Wood committee estimated that its recommendations would reduce aggregate rateable value by up to 0.5 per cent. in England and Wales. Their implementation, in the 1995 non-domestic revaluation, will have tended to increase rates bills for some properties and reduce them for others, but the effects are not distinguishable from those of the revaluation as a whole.