Rating (Coronavirus) and Directors Disqualification (Dissolved Companies) Bill

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath Excerpts

Wednesday 10th November 2021 Grand Committee

Debate on whether Clause 1 should stand part of the Bill.

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, I beg to move that Clause 1 does not stand part of the Bill. Of course, I hope that in the end Clause 1 does stand part of the Bill, but I want to use this as a way of raising issues I would have raised at Second Reading; noble Lords will recall that its timing was moved at very short notice indeed. I would like to register my protest to the usual channels about that, and the fact that none of us who had put our names down were consulted, which is a very poor show indeed.

My primary interest concerns the Government’s decision to establish a £1.5 billion fund to support further reliefs from business rates in the 2021-22 financial year for those businesses that have not received business rates relief. It is absolutely right to support those left-behind businesses, as I call them, but I have questions, which centre largely around the process of releasing this money. The businesses that this is aimed at are arguably some of the most in need, and yet they are having to wait much longer than is acceptable to have a chance of receiving any of this money.

In March, the Government announced the fund and said:

“This is the fastest and fairest way to support businesses outside the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors who have been adversely affected by the pandemic.”—[Official Report, Commons, 25/3/21; col. 78WS.]


But here we are in mid-November, eight months on, and still not a single business has received any money.

To give one example of the real-world impact of not releasing these funds any sooner, English UK, the body representing the English language schools sector, has informed me that, in the last month alone, no fewer than five English language schools have been forced to close, largely because they were excluded from business rates relief. Indeed, 38 English language schools have closed since the pandemic started— 15% of that trade body’s membership. It is hardly surprising: some schools had to pay £300,000 in business rates over the last two financial years, with virtually zero customers.

So, the need for speed is very apparent, but there is a problem in that the guidance to local authorities over the distribution of the money is still awaited. Many businesses do not know whether they will qualify for the fund, given that, as I understand it, the criteria have not yet been published. We just have to go on the March announcement:

“The £1.5 billion pot will be distributed according to official data on the impacts of the pandemic on different sectors, ensuring an even and more proportionate allocation of support across England based on the economic impacts of COVID-19 and not on estimates of the impact on a property’s value.”


As I have already said, there is a real risk that many businesses will not survive long enough to take any benefit from the fund. We do not have the guidance, and my understanding is that the Government’s intention is that it will not come at least until the Bill has received Royal Assent. Surely, given the urgency of the situation, the draft guidance could be issued so that local authorities can begin to prepare their schemes. How long are businesses going to have to wait to get this relief? Of course, I understand that the guidance has to be prepared carefully; there are matters to be enunciated through that guidance, but the policy announcement was made in March. Eight months later, we are still waiting to know what the criteria are for the distribution of these funds.

In addition, for English language schools a complex situation arises because a small handful of councils interpreted the expanded retail discount differently and awarded business rates relief. Consequently, it has been something of a lottery, depending on where the schools are situated. I do hope that the Minister will confirm that just because some councils took the bold step to offer business rates relief to English language schools, this will not jeopardise the chances of those that did not to receive additional funding.

Obviously, I welcome the Government’s existing pandemic support for businesses via the expanded retail discount focused on helping businesses in retail, leisure and hospitality. The release of the additional funds is also welcome, although it is a tacit admission that the previous relief did not reach all those businesses, which, as I said, could show a catastrophic impact due to the coronavirus restrictions. However, the lack of guidance to local authorities suggests to me that it will be many months before businesses receive any of these funds. I am using this opportunity to urge the Minister to sort this out, to get the guidance out quickly and to make sure that local authorities understand that the money has to be distributed as quickly as possible, according to fair criteria. I beg to move.

[The Earl of Lytton (CB)]

My Lords, noble Lords will know of my professional interest in business rating and that I was at one time an employee of the Inland Revenue Valuation Office Agency. I added my name to this clause stand part debate for reasons very much along the lines that the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, set out in making an excellent case for why this clause should be challenged.

I give the Government their due: they have made a massive commitment to the relief of business rates during the pandemic, but I do not believe any business thought, following a relatively modest individual level of relief, and given the overall scale of the impact of the pandemic on business activity, that the Government would then make an arrangement such as to eliminate a main ground of material change of circumstances for everyone.

That is the purpose of Clause 1. It is a binary choice; it is either in or out. My understanding is that the Government are not going to concede on the point so this will probably be my last comment on this bit of the Bill. Clause 1 is the only bit of the Bill that concerns me.

Although I welcome the Chancellor’s further business rates announcements, the fact is that the underlying problems have not gone away. I have very little doubt that someone in HM Revenue & Customs thought quite hard about this and concluded that the removal of a Covid clause for material change of circumstances also conveniently eliminated many other forms of material change, in so far as it would probably be impossible to make a reliable distinction between one and the other. I guess they calculated that those who had not benefited at all could be ignored—that they could afford to concede a short-term position but recover, no doubt with added interest, in the longer term—something they would keep quiet about in the interim. HMRC would thus hold to the mantra of fiscal neutrality, which I have mentioned in the House before, and reinforce its view that there are too many appeals, that managing appeals does not sit easily with the general direction of travel, and that making things administratively cheap to run trumps fairness and equity to ratepayers in a system that has become overstretched, if not overstressed, by the demands made of it over many years. This of course has followed the earlier massive reductions in the capacity of the Valuation Office Agency.

Whatever may be promised by way of additional resources to that agency, which is a critical part of all this, it will be years before the capacity and technical excellence of a once venerable body of professionals gets back to anything near its former self, always assuming that the new resources—if indeed they are new—are other than a race to develop some automated valuation algorithm.

The Government are particularly good at window dressing, but in making a promise of £1.5 billion to be spent by local authorities for further relief of certain business rate payers, they make no reference to the manner, timing or precise purposes to which this relief will be put, so it remains, to some extent, a “jam tomorrow” aspiration. The Minister might like to enlighten the Committee—here I follow the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath—on the origins of the £1.5 billion figure and how it has been calculated, just as every business rate payer and every billing authority would like to know how it will be distributed in practice.

While I am at it, perhaps the Minister can also tell us when the promised further guidance that relates to that distribution will be published. I may be accused of harbouring dark suspicions, but I suspect that it will be too late do anything about it for the 2022-23 fiscal year. This will also be the assumption of local government finance officers and businesses alike, if the Minister cannot assure us of an early date, this side of mid-January 2022, when finance officers will be fixing their budgets and businesses considering their forward programmes. A company that got hammered—excuse the term, but I think it is right—in 2020, may not get any help until 2023. If I am right, that will be just another facet of the creative accounting by the taxman which ultimately costs jobs, blunts enterprise, discourages investment and dents productivity—end of homily.

On previous occasions, I have mentioned the total lack of trust and confidence among those medium-sized and large businesses whose rates bills do the heavy lifting in this area of local government finance. I have previously pointed out the business rate unfairness, its asymmetry with regard to the use of local government services and the dangers of gaming the system of valuation and fair access to appeals, which have now gone on for many years. The Government may consider that the fundamental review that they have responded to will save business rates as a tax, but I am fairly confident that, economically and practically, it is probably too late.

I believe that the Minister is an honourable man. I do not blame him: he inherited this situation, so I give him the benefit of the doubt in suggesting that he can do something about rolling back a bad position in his response today, which I await with interest. That is why I oppose Clause 1 standing part of the Bill.

--- Later in debate ---

I hope I have addressed most of the points raised by noble Lords. I should also have declared my relevant commercial and residential property interests. I have received no relief for any interests that I hold but for completeness I declare those interests.

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister and to other noble Lords who have spoken. We enjoyed an expert intervention from the noble Earl, Lord Lytton, who raised some very pertinent questions. I am also grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Cormack, for his support. He may speak later on his own amendments but I think he was making a point of principle rather than seeking to delay the distribution of this much-needed fund. The noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, eloquently spelled out the plight of the language schools. My noble friend Lady Blake had an interesting insight into the challenges local authorities will have in administering the fund. I agree with her. I used the language schools as an example but there are many other sectors which face similar challenges.

The Minister certainly put up a very able defence of Clause 1. I have no argument with that at all. However, when it comes to the £1.5 billion, and the questions which have been asked, both here and outside, as to whether it is enough, who is eligible, how it is to be distributed and how long it is going to take to get the money out, we are still lacking detail and information. When he said that work was ongoing to prepare the guidance, which needs to reflect various factors, that did sound like an officialese way of saying, “We hope it will be as soon as possible after Royal Assent but I would not bet on it.”

This is a serious point. We are talking about very vulnerable businesses. It seems that the guidance will take some time, then local authorities will draw up a scheme and consult on it, because this will be a very sensitive issue locally, and they will need administrative processes, because clearly they have to make sure that public money is used effectively. When the noble Earl talks about 2023, I fear that may be the case. It is a matter of regret, and I hope that the Minister will reflect on this as the Bill goes through. Having said that, I am very grateful to all noble Lords who have taken part in this debate.

Clause 1 agreed.