SUMMARY OF MEETING - LOCAL AUTHORITY LIAISON GROUP MEETING
12 APRIL 2006

PRESENT:

1. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies were received from Charlotte Corkish, Alan Dowling and Vic East who has now retired from the VOA.

2. MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING

The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted as being a true record and no alteration was required.

3. MATTERS ARISING

VOA/BA End – to – End Review

David Madisson will be attending a meeting with Paul Sanderson to receive comments on the published report.

VOA/BA Interface Issues

At the last meeting BA’s reported numerous difficulties in matching BA/VOA addresses . It was agreed that Carla Maria Heath would report back to meeting once she had consulted David Hughes. (Action Point – Carla Maria Heath)

4. NON DOMESTIC RATING

Stephen Wright provided an update on IPP receipts for 2005 Rating Lists.

Rating Directorate have commenced preparatory work for Revaluation 2010 and Steve Bliss has been appointed Project Manager.

5. COUNCIL TAX

20 September 2005 saw the official announcement of the Council Tax postponement.

Contaminated land and Council Tax Bands

Local authorities under the contaminated land regulations, which came into force in 2000, have to develop an inspection strategy for possible contaminated sites. This has involved identification and risk ranking of many such sites around the country, some of which are developed with housing. Claims are made that properties are unmortgageable, and therefore lower bands applicable.

CEO has taken legal advice and several cases were postponed pending a decision in Surrey which went to VT in November 2005. The VT decision confirmed that the Taxpayers proposal was in fact invalid, upholding the LO’s understanding of the current regulations.

Our understanding is: -

• only physical changes in the locality of a dwelling can give rise to a material reduction in value (LGFAs24 (10)).
• Changes in knowledge concerning the degree or seriousness of existing contamination are not physical changes.
• where the contamination pre-dated the construction of the dwelling, there can have been no physical change in the dwelling’s locality owing to pre-existing conditions.
• a proposal, which seeks a band reduction in such circumstances, will be invalid.
• only if the contamination can be considered to have physically changed the locality post construction of the dwelling, and has not been taken into account in the banding, will the proposal be valid.
• ODPM is being kept aware of the situation.

6. VOA/BA IT INTERFACE ISSUES

Richard Browne gave an overview of progress with the Electronic BA Reports Project and the facilities that the new Internet application will offer to BAs. The software is currently undergoing testing and is likely to be available for 6 pilot BAs in early May. General release of the software should follow later in May. VOA Group Customer Service Managers will provide training for BAs.

Richard Browne gave an overview of the contents of the latest newsletter issued last week and agreed to supply a copy to the secretary of the meeting so that it could be embedded into the minutes of the meeting. David Maddison said that he would look into ways in which the VOA might improve its distribution of the newsletters and liaise with Richard Browne.

The main changes in the agreement between VOA & BAs for IT Services provided centrally was to cover the introduction of the new Electronic BA reports application. The agreement has now been signed by BA Associations in England & Wales and will be issued to BAs with a covering letter next week. David Maddison commented that the Agreement is usually well received by BAs.

7. RATING AND COUNCIL TAX CASES OF INTEREST

The Expert reports have now been exchanged, and the schedule of facts agreed. The LT has set a date for the hearing of June 5 th.

An appeal to the Lands Tribunal has been made by the VO against the Nottingham Valuation Tribunal’s decision to treat as domestic DHUs in Mansfield and Worksop. Each DHU is physically separate from domestic buildings. The DHUs supply heat in the form of hot water to a number of detached houses, bungalows, semi detached and terraced houses and in some cases flats. A conference with Counsel was held on the 27 th March.

Gallagher -v- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - Preston Temple decision

It is understood that the CJCLDS petition (as amended) is now with the appeal Court Judge and a decision or communication is awaited.

The HMRC Solicitor has been asked to respond to a letter from Vtesse on the suspensory effect of Article 88(3) EC treaty.

8. CUSTOMER SERVICES ISSUES

Customer Services undertook a review of the SLA which involved the GCSMs contacting Billing Authorities. 12 responses have been received and little constructive feedback was given. General concerns were raised about the lack of consistency with the partnership across the VOA, some BA’s felt that basic protocols that were put in place were not being addressed properly. Suggestions were given to revisit the current format. Lynda Rawsthorne will be looking into the problems certain BA’s were having and report back to the meeting. (Action Point – Lynda Rawsthorne)

David and Carla will be meeting with Paul Sanderson to discuss good practice and it was suggested that issues such as these should be addressed and progress should be reported back. (Action Point - David and Carla)

9. TELECOMS ISSUES

Local Loop Unbundling

A local loop is the pair of copper wires that runs from a BT local telephone exchange to a customers premises. Unbundling only applies to BT lines at the moment.

There are two types of unbundling – Full and Partial.

Full unbundling gives control of the LL wires to another operator who can offer telephone and broadband services to that customer. The ULL operator puts his equipment in BT’s exchange and takes over the occupation of the wires.

Partial unbundling leaves BT in control of the wires and BT still provide telephony services. The partial ULL operator piggybacks a broadband service down the same wires. In this case there is a shared use but BT are considered to retain paramount control and therefore rateable occupation.

BT are currently rateable for all LL’s on the central rating list in England due to Regulation, until 1 April 2008. Consultation is underway to find a permanent and acceptable solution to the rating of ULL’s

These can be local, regional and national in extent.

A F/O network assessment usually consists of a network of fibres connected to switching and transmission buildings and connections to individual customers. The fibres can be a mix of own build and leased assets. All network operational buildings connected by the fibre network are assessed with the network as contiguous.

Four networks are designated on the Central rating list:

BT

C&WC (Mercury) Ltd

Energis

Global Crossing

All other networks are local list assessments even though some are national networks.

The X-boundary regulations (Reg. 6, NDR (Miscl. Prov.) Regulations 1989 SI 1989/1060) require that all contiguous hereditaments be assessed in one Billing Authority area, the area in which the greatest RV lies at the time the hereditament is first brought into rating. The assessment stays in that list for the life of the list even though it may extend further outside the area. Therefore if a network extends to another BA area and connects a building that has been converted to an exchange, that building will form part of the network assessment in the first BA area.

10 Date Of next Meeting