FINANCIAL PRIVILEGE AND BUSINESS RATE SUPPLEMENTS BILL

That this House deprecates the Government's decision to invoke financial privilege to prevent the House of Lords returning its sensible amendments to the Business Rate Supplements Bill which would have prevented retrospective punishment of port businesses for the incompetence and failures of the Valuation Office Agency; views this pathetic and petty decision not as an invocation of the spirit of Lloyd George to protect the powers of the Commons but as a cowardly attempt to conceal the disastrous consequences of the massive retrospective rate bills the Government is imposing on the ports and its failure to manage the Valuation Office Agency and to prevent it punishing ports; and very much regrets that in doing so the Government and this House lose the opportunity to right a serious wrong and protect Britain's ports from the insolvencies, job losses and diversion of trade and investments which will result.