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Wolfson, Mark

Young, Rt Hon Sir George

Tellers for the Ayes :

Mr. Timothy Wood and

Mr. Timothy Kirkhope.

NOES

Adams, Mrs Irene

Ainsworth, Robert (Cov'try NE)

Barnes, Harry

Bayley, Hugh

Campbell-Savours, D. N.

Clarke, Eric (Midlothian)

Clelland, David

Coffey, Ann

Cohen, Harry

Connarty, Michael

Corbyn, Jeremy

Corston, Ms Jean

Cryer, Bob

Cunliffe, Lawrence

Cunningham, Jim (Covy SE)

Davidson, Ian

Dixon, Don

Dowd, Jim

Etherington, Bill

Godman, Dr Norman A.

Gunnell, John

Hain, Peter

Hall, Mike

Hanson, David

Heppell, John

Hill, Keith (Streatham)

Hood, Jimmy

Illsley, Eric

Jones, Martyn (Clwyd, SW)

Kennedy, Jane (Lpool Brdgn)

Kilfoyle, Peter

McMaster, Gordon

McWilliam, John

Marshall, Jim (Leicester, S)

Martin, Michael J. (Springburn)

Meale, Alan

Miller, Andrew

Mudie, George

Olner, William

O'Neill, Martin

Parry, Robert

Patchett, Terry

Pickthall, Colin

Pope, Greg

Powell, Ray (Ogmore)

Prentice, Ms Bridget (Lew'm E)

Prentice, Gordon (Pendle)

Purchase, Ken

Roche, Mrs. Barbara

Rooney, Terry

Skinner, Dennis

Smith, Llew (Blaenau Gwent)

Spearing, Nigel

Spellar, John

Squire, Rachel (Dunfermline W)

Thompson, Jack (Wansbeck)

Turner, Dennis

Wise, Audrey

Wray, Jimmy

Tellers for the Noes :

Mr. Terry Lewis and

Mr. Kevin Hughes.

Question accordingly agreed to.

Resolved,

That, for the purposes of any Act resulting from the Non-Domestic Rating Bill, it is expedient to authorise the

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payment out of money provided by Parliament of any increase attributable to that Act in the sums payable out of money so provided under the Local Government Finance Act 1988.

ADMINISTRATION

Ordered,

That Mr. Jacques Arnold be discharged from the Administration Committee and Mr. Iain Duncan Smith be added to the Committee.-- [Sir Fergus Montgomery, on behalf of the Committee of Selection.]

PETITION

Thornaby-on-Tees

12.12 am

Mr. Tim Devlin (Stockton, South) : I beg leave to present this petition on behalf of the townspeople of Thonaby-on-Tees in my constituency. Thornaby is a town comprising 24,000 people. I estimate that the petition contains about 6,000 signatures. The petition declares :

that Thornaby is not a postal town and is to become part of the new Unitary Authority of Stockton Borough ; that for cultural and ceremonial purposes Thornaby, being south of the River Tees is to revert to North Yorkshire ; and that Thornaby should not be addressed as "Stockton, County Durham".

The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons declare Thornaby-on-Tees a postal Town in its own right, thus giving its citizens the equal and official right already enjoyed by their fellow citizens in the other Towns of Stockton Borough to give their own town's name as their address and to establish a Town Council so that the Town maintains its identity in spite of being part of Stockton Borough.

I hope that the petition will in due course be given careful and sympathetic treatment by the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department managing the Post Office.

To lie upon the Table.

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Council Tax Banding

Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.-- [Mr. Robert G. Hughes.]

12.14 am

Sir Anthony Durant (Reading, West) : I am grateful to have an opportunity to raise the question of council tax banding from two points of view : first, for those in mobile homes ; and, secondly, with regard to valuation appeals.

My interest in the position of those in mobile homes began when I received a petition signed by 140 residents of Garston park in my constituency. A similar approach has been made by the residents of Crookham caravan park in Newbury, who heard that I had this Adjournment debate and wrote to me asking for my support. I sent the petition to the Ministry and received a reply from the Minister of State, who laid out the current position. I was already aware of that, but at least the position was looked into.

My constituents in Garston park were keen on the community charge. They thought that it was a good tax and are upset that it has now been changed to a council tax, as they suffer under that proposal. Their petition pointed out that their properties were of a lower value than the bottom band of £40,000 and that they should therefore have special consideration. Mr. Cox, a gentleman from the estate, commented :

"At the moment we are in Band A, £40,000. This is far too high for these tin boxes. We now pay council tax, the same as someone living in a 2- 3 bedroom house."

I have looked at their case. I do not question whether that is fair, but agree that they should have either a lower band or special dispensation.

Mobile homes differ from bricks and mortar homes in four ways : the average price is lower ; they depreciate in value quickly ; their occupants do not get full services because the homes are usually on estates ; and, although they form a cross-section of society, the residents are slightly unusual.

Those in Garston park say that their properties are worth, on average, some £20,000. A survey of mobile homes showed that the average price for 1980-90 in the country as a whole was £34,000 for a new mobile home and £19,400 for a second-hand mobile home, giving an average of £24,000 for all mobile homes. That shows that the average price of many mobile homes is roughly £20,000.

Residents therefore feel that their properties should be given special consideration. The value of a mobile home drops nearly 50 per cent. when it becomes second-hand and occupants do not get full services. They must pay, through their rent to the owner of the site, for street lighting and road maintenance. Although they have rubbish collections, education and other local government facilities, they do not receive all the facilities available to bricks-and-mortar homes. Residents are not a cross-section of the population but predominantly small households of one or two people, often elderly and retired. They are on low incomes and, although many have sold their bricks and mortar and moved from a house to a mobile home, they have done so to give them a bit of capital for their old age. On introducing the consultative proposals to the House, the then Secretary of State for the Environment, my right hon. Friend the Member for Henley (Mr. Heseltine), said that the new tax would be simple and cheap to collect,

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would not impose excessive demands on any household, and would be seen to be fair. However, those people do not think that that has come about. He introduced another band--band H--at the top after a number of pressures, but nothing has been done at the lower end. It is estimated that there are some 75,000 to 80,000 mobile homes in England. A special discount for them would probably benefit their occupants to the tune of some £90, on average, for each mobile home. I hope that the Government will have another look at the matter in any review of the council tax that they undertake.

On council tax valuations, the most recent national figure issued by the Minister of State in answer to the right hon. Member for Derby, South (Mrs. Beckett) was that a total of 770,467 people had appealed against their valuations, and that the number of valuations outstanding was 597,931. The most recent figure for Reading is 4,611, and for Newbury it is 3,325. The figures were supplied by Reading's valuation officer. That suggests that the total is close to the original Government estimate of 1 million claims.

One of the matters that concerns me about the speed of dealing with valuations is that people have to pay the tax that is settled by the original valuation and then have to have a refund. Over the years, the refund accumulates and that presents a difficulty for the local authority which has to repay it. Therefore, it would be better if the business of the valuation was dealt with much quicker than at present.

My hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for the Environment, who is replying to the debate, said in a written answer on 26 November that 560,000 cases would be settled by the end of 1994 and that the rest would be settled as soon as possible. I hope that we can get quicker valuations and have the matter settled. The tribunals need more support and perhaps more resources. In a speech to the National Committee of Valuation Tribunals conference, the Minister said :

"We must not underestimate the danger that public attitudes to the new council tax will be soured by the perception that appeals are taking too long to settle."

In Reading, there is a unique situation. Twelve people successfully appealed out of the 120 people in Amity road, and the valuation officer reviewed the whole street and lowered the banding for everybody, which delighted the residents. The difficulty is that some 800 houses in other streets are similar to those that had their banding lowered. The local council got excited about that and made a national appeal in The Guardian and in all the local papers urging everybody in Reading to appeal. As a result, the number of appeals increased by more than 2,500, which meant more work for the valuation officer and the valuation department.

I am concerned that many of the people who got excited over the press release by the Labour-controlled council will not have their appeals upheld and will be disappointed and angry that they were misled into appealing unnecessarily. About 800 or 900 house will probably benefit as a result of the Amity road appeals, but there are now so many people appealing in Reading that the valuation officer is overwhelmed by work. I would not say that he is annoyed, because civil servants are not allowed to become annoyed. It must be unusual for a local council to tell everybody to appeal against valuations that obviously benefit the council.

While the council tax is basically fair and in many ways fairer than the poll tax, there is no doubt that a minority of

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council tenants and those with mobile homes feel aggrieved about the tax. I hope that the Minister will look at the matter. It is almost a year since the tax was introduced, and perhaps it is time to review its workings. Will he also look at mobile homes valuations to try to improve the situation which particularly affects my constituency?

12.24 am

Mr. Nick Hawkins (Blackpool, South) rose

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