When I worked for NFC in the 1980s, I remember we took the roof off a perfectly-usable warehouse to avoid a punishing 25% increase in business rates, courtesy of Camden LBC and the GLC.

As part of the post-poll tax settlement in 1990, business rates were centralised into the national non-domestic rate (NNDR), and there they have remained – like Sleeping Beauty, immune to any case for localism.