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Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton: My Lords, I note and welcome the work carried out by the noble Lord to clarify and widen the scope of the representations that can be submitted to the local authority as part of its consideration of a draft BID scheme. A concern remains that the clause, as amended, would mean that the Bill contains no reference to the timescale for making such representations. Does the noble Lord propose to deal with that at a later stage?
Lord Jenkin of Roding: My Lords, with the leave of the House, I would hope that any such details might be most appropriately dealt with in another place. If we have to embark on yet further amendments at Third Reading, I can conceive of there being some procedural difficulties. I thoroughly take the Minister's point, but I would much prefer to leave such matters for proceedings in another place. However, I hope that this amendment can be accepted and I commend it to the House.
On Question, amendment agreed to.
Clause 3 [Consideration of application]:
Lord Jenkin of Roding moved Amendment No. 5:
Leave out Clause 3 and insert the following new clause--
(". In considering a draft scheme a local authority shall have regard to such representations as may be made by interested persons, and in particular by--
(a) any ratepayer in respect of a hereditament within the area specified in the draft scheme;
(b) any ratepayer in respect of a hereditament not within the area specified in the draft scheme but which is affected by the improvements which are proposed by it;
(c) any other person in respect of such a hereditament, being a person having an interest in that hereditament in any capacity;
(d) any person who is either resident within the area specified in the draft scheme, or is not so resident but is affected by the improvements which are proposed by it; and
(e) any relevant authority.").
On Question, amendment agreed to.
Clause 4 [Making of election order]:
Lord Jenkin of Roding moved Amendments Nos. 6 and 7:
On Question, amendments agreed to.
Lord Jenkin of Roding moved Amendment No. 8:
The noble Lord said: My Lords, I beg to move Amendment No. 8 and speak also to Amendments Nos. 11 and 12. Amendments Nos. 8 and 12 which are linked deal with the potential exclusion of small businesses from liability to business improvement district charges. This was one of the major topics of discussion at Committee stage in relation to an amendment moved by the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee. The desirability of providing some mechanism for excluding such small firms from liability was in general accepted. The mechanism is not however a straightforward one. Simply to provide, as one might have done, a minimum rateable value below which businesses would not be liable to pay BID charges, or would be liable to reduced charges, would be very inflexible. In addition, it would catch different categories of businesses according to the general level of rateable values in the areas in which they were located. In an area with low rateable values sizeable businesses might find themselves excluded when they should be paying. The same exemption threshold in areas of very high rateable values might exempt only the very smallest of businesses.
Amendment No. 12 seeks to address this by enabling the local authority to determine an exemption or abatement of charge. This local approach will enable the category of small businesses at which exemption is aimed to be more accurately identified on an area-by-area basis. When this scheme is put to the local authority with a view to asking it to hold a ballot and invoke the procedure in every case I expect the promoters of the scheme to have made very clear proposals as to the appropriate level of exemption. But it would be for the local authority to decide whether that level of exemption was satisfactory or should be varied.
Amendment No. 11 requires the local authority to inform the BID applicant if it proposes to exempt small businesses by a determination provided for in another amendment. Such action may prompt the applicant to reconsider pursuing his application if the result of the exemption is that the scheme will have significantly fewer contributors than he originally envisaged. That he can do; he can withdraw his application. The procedure now exists under which there can be an exemption for small businesses. The decision as to where the line should be drawn--there may be more than one line; there may be a line for an abated contribution--is made by the local authority and the applicant can decide, in the light of that, whether he still wishes to proceed. I beg to move.
Baroness Hamwee: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for markedly improving my amendment moved at the previous stage. I too had concluded that it was not possible to be prescriptive in terms of amount or proportion with regard to the exemption of small businesses. The noble Lord's amendment is more comprehensive than mine, and I certainly welcome it.
Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton: My Lords, we recognise that this amendment builds on suggestions made at Committee stage by the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee.
Lord Jenkin of Roding: My Lords, I am grateful for the remarks of the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee. I hope to reciprocate in a moment. I beg to move.
On Question, amendment agreed to.
Lord Jenkin of Roding moved Amendment No. 9:
The noble Lord said: My Lords, I beg to move Amendment No. 9. I say straight away that this was a very good point raised at Committee stage by the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee. It requires the modification sought by the local authority to be both reasonable and necessary in the opinion of the authority. The noble Baroness makes a very good point and I hope that this amendment meets it.
Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton: My Lords, one hopes that a local authority would never wish to make any modifications unless it believed that they were reasonable. No doubt the intention of the noble Lord is to make the Bill more flexible in this respect. We would query however whether in the interests of flexibility it is desirable for modifications to be necessary as well as reasonable. We wonder whether the noble Lord would be prepared to look again at this aspect of the Bill.
Lord Jenkin of Roding: My Lords, I simply remind the noble Baroness of the remarks that I made a few moments ago. Of course, account can be taken of the point that she has made if the Bill makes progress in another place. I beg to move.
On Question, amendment agreed to.
Lord Jenkin of Roding moved Amendment No. 10:
On Question, amendment agreed to.
Lord Jenkin of Roding moved Amendment No. 11:
On Question, amendment agreed to.
Lord Jenkin of Roding moved Amendment No. 12:
On Question, amendment agreed to.
Clause 5 [Provisional BID charge list]:
Lord Jenkin of Roding moved Amendment No. 13:
The noble Lord said: My Lords, I beg to move Amendment No. 13. That is intended to make clear that the obligation on a local authority to prepare a BID charge list relates to the premises of the ratepayers who have been identified by the person who wishes to set up a BID as the prospective contributors. As the Bill stands it could be read as requiring the local authority to compile a complete list of hereditaments in the area, which would not be sensible. The amendment also takes into account the fact that the businesses identified by the person proposing to set up a BID and listed in his draft scheme may have been modified by the authority as a result of its consideration of the application under Clause 4(3). I believe that this represents a procedural improvement and I hope that the House will feel able to accept it.
Page 3, line 13, leave out from beginning to third ("the").
Page 3, line 14, leave out ("within that period").
Page 3, line 31, after ("above") insert ("and any determination the authority propose to make under subsection (6) below").
Page 3, line 32, leave out ("thinks") and insert ("considers reasonable and").
Page 3, line 34, leave out ("subsection 3(1)") and insert ("section 3").
Page 3, line 46, leave out from ("above,") to end of line and insert ("or the local authority have made, or propose to make, a determination under subsection (6) below which is relevant to the application, the local authority shall inform the applicant in writing of the modifications or determination (as the case may be)").
Page 3, line 47, at end insert--
("(6) The local authority may determine that any hereditament whose rateable value as shown on the local non-domestic rating list does not exceed an amount specified by the local authority shall be--
(a) exempt from the payment of business improvement district charges; or
(b) subject to an abatement of such charges,
and the determination may make different provision for exemption or abatement as respects different rateable values.").
Page 4, line 5, leave out from ("hereditaments") to end of line 7 and insert ("whose ratepayers will, subject to such modifications as may have been required under section 4(3), be scheme charge payers in accordance with section 2(4)(b).").
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