Mr. John McCarthy:

It is there as part of that exercise. From our point of view as the Department with responsibility for local government - and again without expressing policy preferences - an important piece for us as part of the LPT exercise was that there would be discretion given to local authorities in order that local decision-making and local revenue were more connected. The power to both increase and decrease is very relevant in that context because while I would have heard some of the types of calls in media from some local authorities not to decrease the rate on the basis of how it would affect income, at the same time that can also become a driver of efficiency depending on what decisions people may wish to take. However, from our point of view, devolution of responsibility to the local authority to make decisions locally will be an important part of the exercise.