At the end of June The Government launched it’s consultation focused on making business rates revaluations more frequent, fairer and more streamlined. You can view our full response, which as been submitted to the Government and the Rating Surveyors Association by clicking here.
Responses close Tuesday, 24th August and we would encourage other businesses to provide their own response opposing the proposals in their current form. Details of the proposals and a survey link to respond may be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/hm-treasury-fundamental-review-of-business-rates-call-for-evidence.
Sanderson Weatherall LLP consider the primary issues of concern that require addressing to be:
Duty to Notify Provision
If it becomes mandatory for occupiers to notify the VOA of changes to their business or property then the system must be designed so as not to be too burdensome and expensive for them to administer. In short we believe that ratepayers;
– Should not be required to audit and correct any historic errors and failures on the part of the Valuation Office Agency.
– Should not be required to provide details of changes without prompting and should only be required to notify changes as part of an annual return.
– Should have the VOA’s plans and area calculations made freely available to assist them.
Challenge Window
Whilst we understand the desire to reduce the number of challenges outstanding at the end of a rating list we are ardently opposed to introducing a 3-month window for challenges to be submitted. Such a window is far too short to provide businesses with sufficient time to collate, review and analyse evidence, draw up schedules and provide comprehensive explanation and reasoning in relation to its application to the valuation of a property.
Challenge Fee
We are equally as passionate in our disagreement to the introduction of a challenge fee. The suggestion of a challenge fee should be considered an affront to taxpayers’ rights and should be removed from any proposals. It is well established and accepted that valuation is an art and not a science, so a ratepayer can rarely have certainty that their Challenge will succeed and a fee will simply act as a deterrent for many and prevent businesses from obtaining a fair and accurate valuation.
Transparency
We are supportive of proposals to improve transparency and making available the evidence sitting behind the VOA’s valuations. To avoid a ‘pay for access’ system, there should however be no fee for such transparency requests.
Move to 3-yearly revaluations
Moving to a three-year cycle should be the Government’s priority at present and not striving to further shorten this. A three-year list was promised a number of years ago, received popular support and should be delivered. We do however consider the move to a 3-yearly Revaluation cycle meaningless without a significant overhaul to transitional phasing provisions or the removal of these altogether.
Closing Comments
VOA statistics state that as at 31 March 2021 they have approved 557,810 property claims and this represents just over a quarter of the 2 million rateable properties in England. The fact that around three quarters of assessments had still not been claimed and that the VOA’s online service still states “BETA – This is a new service” some 4 and a half years after its introduction go to illustrate some of the existing issues with adoption and functionality.
Significant further changes will only generate additional barriers to business and erode taxpayer’s rights. Any changes need to be gradual, provide fair timescales / windows to Challenge and impose as small an additional burden on the ratepayer as possible without barriers to access such as the introduction of fees.