Newcastle and Gateshead Local Ratepayer Valuation Forum Meeting

Held : 25 March 2004

Meeting at Darwin Suite, International Centre for Life, Newcastle upon Tyne.

Members present:

Apologies for absence were made by
UK Land (Philip Moorin) Gateshead NHS Trust (Peter Harding) Metrocentre Management (Cyril Goodhand) Valuation Tribunal (Lesley Rutherford) Licensed Victuallers Association (John Hudson).

Welcomed new Forum members
Bernice Mcguiness (Metro Centre Management) Jason Mcnaught (Gateshead Council)

Colin Snowball opened the meeting by welcoming and thanking those attending.
The minutes of the 23 January 2004 LRVF were accepted by the members as a true record.

Matters Arising
Action Ponts 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

• 30 April 2004 has been suggested by Graeme Moffitt of Gateshead MBC for a workshop to discuss further the points raised at the presentation by Nic Suggit.

Action Point raised

• Summary Valuation Explanatory leaflet

Action Taken

• Tony Capp said that it was hoped to provide members with the final version of the Summary Valuation and covering letter very shortly as soon as outstanding issues had been resolved. The papers will be sent out to members separately to these minutes as soon as possible.

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 meeting on 10 February 2004 is attached below. It contains more information about Summary Valuations.

  NRVF Summary - March 04

Action Point raised

• Tony Capp mentioned the possibility of Summary Valuations for multiple occupations, being delivered to one address. It was hoped that this facility would be available and members were invited to register any interest.

Action Point

• Mary Morrison- Paton will report back to members regarding the availability of Summary Valuation history.

Action Taken

• Mary Morrison–Paton has confirmed that the facility to look back at the history on Summary Valuations will be available on the Internet.

Action Point raised

• Tony Capp to communicate concerns about the lack of standardisation in Billing Authority Rates accounts.

Action Taken

• IRRV are looking at standardisation of format. A best practice guide will be produced for Local Authorities. Tony will report back to members about the progress, once he has the written report.

Feedback from members
Tim James NECC said that an article on the Civil Penalty and an update on his involvement with the LRVF had been given to his members. Cyril Goodhand of the Metro Centre was able to publish an article in the March edition of Metroworld entitled “ Business Rates Information for Retailers”

Action Point

• Summaries of the main topics discussed at each LRVF meeting would be provided to members for use as articles for their publications.

Action Taken

• Summary of Nic Suggit presentation is provided in article format below – members are invited to use the text in their own publications.

  LRVF ODPM article - Newcastle April 04

Revaluation Update
Presentations made by Andy Hallows, Revaluation Project Manager.

Current Reval tasks:

• To continue to progress 2005 list valuations. Note: all valuations to be completed by 31 May 2004.
• To maintain both the 2000 and 2005 list valuations. This is referred to as Dual List Maintenance and occurs when a material change has taken place that affects both rating Lists
• To quality assure 2005 list valuations. Quality assurance is very important as a means of checking that valuation schemes are structured correctly and that the system is effectively delivering acceptable valuations. Quality Assurance is also necessary to give both the ratepayer and the ODPM confidence in the valuations produced by the VOA.

It was considered very important that ratepayers be given sufficient information to enable them to fully understand Summary Valuations. One possible way of achieving this would be to use the new mybusinessrates.gov.uk website to supplement any information provided by the Summary Valuation Leaflet. This would help make valuations more acceptable first time.

Action Point

• Tony Capp to talk to Mary Morrison-Paton about VOA Communications launching more detailed information for ratepayers on the mybusiness rates site.

LRVF Presentation

Business Improvement Districts, Small Business Rates Relief, Balance of Funding
Presentation by Nic Suggit Head of Business Rates Policy ODPM

Summary and slides from the presentation given by Nic Suggit below:

Presentation Minutes
Local Forum March 2004 Presentation

Any Other Business
Looking ahead at future topics for discussion the following were identified, a presentation on valuation of Public Houses, Local Authority properties and Hospitals, Non Domestic and Domestic borderline cases and the Rating Appeals procedure. In advance of the Summary Valuations being produced members agreed it would be helpful to have a simple timetable of events to alert their own members as to what happens and when. Another suggestion was that simple local press releases made to coincide with the Revaluation Timetable would be of benefit.

Action Point

• Tony Capp to discuss press release with VOA Communications- see article provided above on Nic Suggit’s presentation.

Action taken

• Revaluation Timetable of events attached
  
  

  Timetable
  1st April 2003	Antecedent Valuation Date (reference point for revaluation 2005)
  Jan - May 2004	ODPM Research on Transition in England (and discussions with stakeholders)
  April - May 2004	ODPM research on Small Business Rate Relief scheme for England
  31st May 2004	All valuations completed by VOA
  End June 2004	ODPM announce details of transition scheme, SBRR and provisional multiplier for 05/06
  Summer 2004	Consultation on draft regulations for ODPM schemes
  October 2004	Draft rating list and summary valuations published
  October - December 2004	Registration for SBRR and Transition made in Parliament
  January 2005	Multiplier confirmed
  February - March 2005	Bills for 2005/06 issued by authorities
  1st April 2005	Compiled rating list comes into force.

Colin Snowball thanked everyone for their attendance and contributions to the discussions.

Date of Next Meeting
The next meeting will take place on 2 July 2004.