Yesterday’s long overdue report by MPs on the business, innovation and skills committee highlights once more the government’s farcical handling of its high street rescue mission.

It would take an awful lot more than the 60 or so pages produced by the BIS committee to detail every embarrassing episode since ministers launched their effort back in May 2011.

Perhaps that’s why, in fact, it has taken MPs nearly a year (they first started hearing evidence in May 2013) to come up with a report that pretty much echoes what most sensible-minded retailers were saying three years ago.

It can only be hoped that the main focus this time – rather than dredging up the past of the Portas Pilots and the ongoing mystery of where their funding went – is on what happens next.

Virtually all parties, from MPs on the committee, to the ACS, the BRC, Bill Grimsey and Sir Terry Leahy, are agreed that a fundamental review, or better still outright replacement of business rates is needed, rather than the tinkering around the edges we’ve seen so far.

Sadly, that’s where the consensus ends. The issue of business rates and what replaces the outdated status quo is such a minefield it will need strong leadership of the highest order from ministers if there is any chance of a credible new system being in place by 2017, when its short-term fixes expire.

But it doesn’t bode well for sharp, decisive action when the high streets minister is unable to supply a parliamentary committee with details on just how £2.3m of taxpapers’ cash was spent, four months after being asked.

On the issue of this, and the Portas Pilots as a whole, it is safe to say that the government has shown it doesn’t have much of a clue. Let’s hope that when it comes to the issue of business rates and finding a new solution, it is more on the ball.

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