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Held: 23 January 2004
Meeting at Darwin Suite, International Centre for Life,
Newcastle upon Tyne.
Members present
| Bill Keenlyside |
Federation Small Business |
Steven Reeve
|
Newcastle City Council |
| Lesley Rutherford |
Valuation Tribunal |
| Lyall Simm |
Newcastle City Council |
| Andy Wood |
North Eastern Co-Operative |
Apologies for absence
| Alasdair Baird |
Arriva |
| Philip Moorin |
UK Land |
| Tim James |
North East Chamber of Commerce |
| Philip Heppell |
Royal Institution Chartered Surveyors |
| Graeme Moffitt |
Gateshead Council |
| Peter Harding |
Gateshead NHS Trust |
| Paul Jackson |
English Partnership |
| Peter Marshall |
Ashtenne Limited |
Welcomed new Forum members
| James Bush |
Country Land and Business Association |
| Andrew Clarke |
Ashtenne Limited |
Colin Snowball opened the meeting by welcoming and thanking those
attending.
The minutes of the 14 October 2003 LRVF were accepted by the members
as a true record.
Matters Arising
Action Points raised at the previous meeting.
- A
workshop to identify the main concerns of the Forum members regarding
Transition and other relief from payment of rates, to be
organised by Graeme Moffitt of Gateshead MBC.
Action taken
- A date for the workshop on Transition
is still to be confirmed with Graeme Moffitt of Gateshead
MBC.
- Following a request for information on exemptions from
rates, a booklet
on “Transition” by
Graeme Moffitt and “Exemptions” by Chris
Sykes of the VOA has been prepared for forum members.
Action Point raised
- Summary Valuation Explanatory
leaflet.
Action taken
- Tony Capp took members views on the Summary Valuation
letter forward with ODPM, it is hoped a redraft will be
available to members at the next meeting.
Action Point raised
- National Forum feedback
to be a regular agenda item.
Action taken
- A written report by Tony Capp on
feedback from the National Forum is attached below.
NRVF Newcastle Summary
RICS Practice Statement
The New Civil Penalty
Action Point raised
- Philip Heppell to summarise
his presentation of 15 October 2003 for use by forum
members as an article for their internal newsletters.
Action taken
- Philip Heppell provided members
with an article “ Wild Bill Hiccup from
the “Valuer” magazine,
this is an
excellent article
on unprofessional
agents. David
Hudson author
of the piece
was happy to grant
forum members
use of the article
in their own newsletters
to help spread
the word to their
membership. The Editor
of IRRV Valuer
has also
confirmed the
use of extracts
from the article
by forum members,
within their
own publications.
Action
Point raised
- Mary Morrison-Paton to be invited to
speak on the VOA website improvements
and Agency Communications strategy for 2005.
Action taken
- Mary Morrison-Paton invited to
speak at this meeting of the forum.
Action Point raised
- Tony Capp to feed back to
the National Forum and ODPM concerns on downward
phasing and explore how the forum can contribute to the review of Transitional
relief
by
ODPM
for the
2005
Reval.
Action
taken
- Nic
Suggit head
of Business
Rates Policy
at ODPM has
been invited
to
speak on Transitional relief and other forthcoming changes to the rating system
at
the next meeting in March. Nic is happy to take any questions
on
these
and
other
aspects
of the rating
system but
as
his
brief
is very
wide
it would
be appreciated if members could put
forward
any questions they have for Nic
in
advance. A
proforma for that purpose is
attached. After completion please return
the proforma to Carol Wilson by 27 February
2004
Proforma
Action Point raised
- Tony Capp to communicate
concerns about the lack of standardisation
in Billing Authority Rates accounts.
Action taken
- Members comments on the lack of standardisation
in Billing Authority
Rates Accounts has been raised by Tony Capp though the NRVF direct to ODPM.
IRRV are
looking at
this
and
a report is expected
in the
next
two months.
Feedback from members
Feedback from the members highlighted those they represent are
aware of the LRVF and it’s aims, but feel it is still early
days. It is hoped as the 2005 Revaluation progresses and Summary
Valuations are issued more questions will be asked by the business
people the members represent.
A suggestion was made by the VOA that they would be happy to
tailor presentations to the needs of the membership; future talks
could include licensed properties, NHS Valuations and Local Authority
Valuations.
Revaluation Update
Presentation made by Andy Hallows, Revaluation Project Manager
A booklet by Andy Hallows on the“ Civil Penalty” containing
some useful contact numbers and information on enforcement procedures
was given to the members. Enforcement procedures will be introduced
for the 2005 Revaluation with a civil penalty maximum of £500
or the rateable value of the property whichever is the greater
for non-completion of rental information to the VOA. The ratepayer
will receive a warning letter before any civil penalty notice is
served. Appeals can be made to the VOA against the penalty notice
within 28 days. The message from the VOA is that “we need
accurate rental information, not the money from civil penalties. ” .The
more rental information the VOA has available will result in a
more accurate rate bill for the ratepayer.
1/10/04 will see the draft list deposited and Summary Valuations
will be issued both in hardcopy and on the Internet. Andy Hallows
confirmed that not all Summary Valuations would be displayed on
the Internet Certain properties will only receive Summary Valuations
in hard copy due to security and the sensitive information used
to arrive at their rateable value. Licensed Premises will not now
receive Summary Valuations in hard copy due to software problems.
An explanatory leaflet will accompany each Summary Valuation. If
the rateable value of a property changes then the Summary Valuation
on the Internet will also be updated. A question was asked as to
whether a history of the changes would be available.
LRVF Reval Update Presentation
Revaluation Communication Strategy
Presentation by Mary Morrison–Paton, VOA Head of Corporate
Communications
Mary Morrison-Paton VOA Head of Corporate Communications spoke
about the Agency’s approach to communications for the 2005
Revaluation. Local Authorities had agreed to issue revaluation
leaflets, developed by ODPM, with the billing procedure and a
generic website was being set up by the VOA called “ mybusinessrates.gov.uk” this
is a one stop shop for information on business rates.
Phase 1 of “ mybusinessrates.gov.uk” will be live within
the next five months. There will be a button on the site which
provides a direct link to the Valuation Office and Office of the
Deputy Prime Minister.
Phase 2 will be interactive with a calculator where ratepayers
will be able to get an idea of how much they will be paying in
rates following the revaluation of their property. This will only
be an approximation and there will be a rider to that effect. The
message to business ratepayers is “ make it your business” to
be informed.
She was aware of concerns about the possible misuse of Summary
Valuations on the Internet by unprofessional agents. Every step
was being taken by the VOA to protect the ratepayer, a press campaign
would be run to alert ratepayers.
Action Point - Mary Morrison-Paton will report back to members
regarding the availability of summary Valuation history
She was also concerned that not all small businesses have access
to the Internet and those that do often use it infrequently because
of cost constraints. Communication needs to be in many different
formats, accessible in all sorts of media and different languages.
As Head of VOA Corporate Communications Mary Morrison-Paton feels
the way forward is to be audience based, forum members need to
help us understand the needs of their membership.
LRVF North East Reval Comms Activitiy
Any Other Business
None
Colin Snowball thanked everyone for their attendance and contributions
to the discussions. The forum agreed that the following topics
had been identified for discussion at a future meeting.
- Appeal
Procedure
- Programming
- Presentations on non bulk property eg Licensed Property
Valuations, NHS or Local Authority Valuations
Date of Next Meeting
The next meeting will take place on 25 March 2004.
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