Held at the Welsh Assembly Government Pavilion,
Royal Welsh Showground, Builth Wells
Thursday 22 January 2009
Present : Wales Tourism Alliance (David Chapman, Julian Burrell); Federation of Small Businesses (Nia Davies); Welsh Health Estates (Clive Ball); Country Land & Business Association (Dawn Harding-Maddocks); RICS (John Harper);
Billing Authorities’ Representative (Tony Price); Welsh assembly Government (David Fletcher); Valuation Tribunals (Chris Owen & Wendy Beynon); Valuation Office Agency (David Grace, David Tretton, Clive Daniels, Tony Capp, Steve Perkins, Jean Jones)
Apologies : EEF (Martin Bibey); British Institute of Innkeepers (Steve Howe); British Retail Consortium (Tom Ironside); Federation of Private Business (Matt Goodman); BERR (Linda Stephens); Association of Convenience Stores (Shane Brennan); HBOS (Roger Littlewood); IRRV (Janet Alexander); Welsh Local Government Association (Gaynor Williams); Property Occupiers (Tim Kind); West Wales Chamber of Commerce (Lyn Harries)
Welcome and Introduction
David Grace opened the meeting and welcomed members of the Forum. He outlined the broad structure of the Local Taxation system in Wales and the Valuation Office Agency’s (VOA) role within it. The VOA's aims for the Forum included consulting members on emerging issues, promoting understanding of the rating system, gaining a greater insight as to how Ratepayer members understand and view the Rating system, and finally providing greater access to policy makers in relation to local taxation at WAG. Overall it was intended to promote dialogue between all stakeholders in the rating system.
The members introduced themselves and stated their aims for the forum: -
- The Welsh Assembly Government viewed the launch of the Forum as an important development for Wales. A number of changes to the Welsh system had been made over the past six years and these had been driven by the views of people in Wales. The hope was for open and candid conversations to encourage dialogue and build on those changes.
- The forum should aim to remove the confusion that can surround the various roles and responsibilities of the statutory bodies involved in rating, especially between collection (Billing Authorities) and valuation (VOA), and establish clearly the best points of contact on specific issues. The Forum should also address the concerns of ratepayers have about the potential outcomes of the 2010 Revaluation. (IRRV)
- Information should be provided on how WAG uses resources in Wales and new policies should be discussed and explained fully before introduction. The Forum should consider the reintroduction of transitional relief in Wales.
Small business operators did not have access to professional advisors who had little incentive to take on appeals in respect of properties with lower rateable values. It was important that these businesses were aware of the services available from the VOA (WTA)
Improved advice should be available for rural ratepayers before work commences on converting business premises, which can lead to a rating liability for the first time. In addition, converted premises cannot be let following the conversions and then with often could not be let immediately so the introduction of empty property rates places an additional burden on rural businesses (CLA).
- The FSB had 10,000 members in Wales who, as SMEs, typically spent a significant portion of turnover on rates, and are therefore sensitive to any changes maded. Their objective was to obtain more information on micro-generation.
FSB had concerns over crime prevention measures as a whole but in particular
the approach to rating of CCTV (which David Tretton advised were only assessed where more than 4 cameras were present) and micro generation units (which David Fletcher said would be exempt from rating from 2010). (FSB)
- The RICS would welcome a full discussion of issues such as methods of valuation and rate relief (RICS)
- Welsh Health Estates would aim to educate NHS managers and administrators on how the rating system works via better links and communications (WHE) .
David Grace was grateful for the views of members, which would help shape future Forum agendas. He said that he would be happy to discuss all aspects of the rating system, including valuations and rate reliefs although it would be inappropriate to talk about individual assessments and liabilities.
David Fletcher acknowledged the concerns of members about the 2009/10 increase in the multiplier, which was in line with the annual RPI increase in September 2008 as provided by legislation. Whilst the Assembly had powers to apply a smaller increase the cost to the Assembly of doing so was prohibitive, at about £8m per one per cent reduction.
Non-Domestic Rating System and the 2010 Revaluation
David Tretton, Director of Rating for the VOA gave a presentation on the Non Domestic Rating system and an update on the 2010 Rating Revaluation. The presentation included information on the rationale for the revaluation, and on how the valuation system had been modified in 2005 and beyond.
David set out progress so far with the 2010 revaluation, including work done on the prior agreement of rateable values in some sectors, the timetable for completion of the exercise and some of the valuation challenges facing the VOA such as the difficult economic climate. A copy of the presentation can be obtained by emailing jean.jones@voa.gsi.gov.uk
Tony Price,
Billing Authorities’ Representative, voiced concerns about the effect of revaluation on pubs. He said that some were closing in Powys with the trend for buying cheap supermarket alcohol reducing takings, on top of any effects the smoking ban may be having. David Grace explained that the VOA is in the process of discussing these issues with the LVA and that a valuation scheme had been agreed. David Tretton said that valuations would reflect underlying market conditions, but whilst acknowledging that some pubs and bingo halls may have been affected by the smoking ban, he added that some gastro pubs for example had seen an increase in takings.
VOA Communications
Steve Perkins, VOA, discussed the VOA’s strategy on communications for Revaluation 2010. He highlighted how ratepayer forums had had an input into summary valuations, providing breakdowns of individual assessments on bulk class categories, and issued to ratepayers ahead of the 2005 revaluation. He explained that further improvements had been made to the format to be used for 2010.
Clive Ball asked if the reference number could be made more prominent on the summary valuation. It was confirmed that this would be taken into consideration along with other suggested improvements. Action Point Steve Perkins.
Non Domestic Rates From The Perspective Of The Assembly
David Fletcher, WAG gave a broad prospective on how the £800 million raised by business rates provides for services etc. in Wales.
Small Business Rate Relief
David outlined the small business relief scheme in Wales, which was a very much simpler scheme than its counterpart operating in England. The scheme applied to 50% of businesses in Wales and there was no tariff applied to businesses that did not qualify – the scheme was fully funded by the Assembly Government. Funding had been transferred from the rural rate relief scheme, which whilst it had been very generous, provided no help for depressed urban areas. The scheme would be reviewed in 2012.
Empty Property Rate
With reference to empty property rates, the Assembly had listened to concerns raised at the 2008 Economic Summit, and had canvassed for changes. As a result, from the 1/04/09 all vacant properties in Wales with a rateable value below £15, 000 will be exempt, for 12 months, from the empty property rate.
Transitional Relief
David also responded to concerns about the absence in Wales of Transitional Relief (TR). TR had never been intended as a permanent feature of rating but was initially used to phase in changes when the national non-domestic rate was introduced in 1990, prior to which local Billing Authorities had implemented widely differing rates in the pound.
The Assembly Government have not completely ruled out a further TR scheme in 2010 but it had to be recognised that the Exchequer requirement was that the scheme had to be funded by phasing in reductions in bills. If a TR scheme was introduced, it would probably be based on the scheme employed in 2000 and targeted at small businesses. David said that any business suffering genuine hardship could consider making an application to their local authority for hardship relief, which was 75% funded by the Assembly Government.
Business Rate Supplements
The Assembly had complementary powers to England to introduce supplement on the business rate and planned to give billing authorities discretion to do so. Introduction would be subject to consultation, which would include any rateable thresholds that would apply. In England, the proposal was that properties with a rateable value below £50,000 would be exempt, but that would be impracticable in Wales where values were broadly lower.
Welsh Language
David Grace asked the members for their opinions as to the need for all forum correspondence to be bilingual. It was agreed that the agendas and minutes would be bilingual but that all other Forum business (including day-to-day e-mail correspondence) would be in conducted in English.
Any Other Business
The location of the Royal Welsh Showground venue was not convenient for some members. David Grace advised the meeting that a short questionnaire would be issued when any comments about the location, future agenda items etc. could be made.
A suggestion that member’s e-mail addresses should be made available to al other members to facilitate easier contact was agreed.
Date of next meeting
It is proposed that the next forum meeting will be held on 30thApril 2009. Venue and time to be confirmed.
David Grace thanked everyone for attending and closed the meeting.
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