I
think I understand the question:
The simplest way to get a value from "code behind" into the "markup" is to simply run the element server side. You can do this with any element:
<a runat="server" ID="myAnchor" href="#" class="inner"></a>
then it will appear in the code behind:
myAnchor.HRef = "somevalue";
or something similar - My VB is very rusty