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MINUTES OF MEETING HELD ON 22nd OCTOBER 2003
VALUATION OFFICE AGENCY, LONDON WC2 Present - representatives of:
Action with Communities in Rural England (Deborah Clarke); Association of Convenience Stores (James Lowman); British Retail Consortium (Nick Burns and Mike Dawkins); British Property Federation (Anthony Brittain); Country Landowners Association (Oliver Harwood); Federation of Small Businesses (Roger Culcheth); Inter Bank Rating Forum (Roger Littlewood); Small Business Bureau (Tim Kind); IRRV (Tom Dixon); RICS (Jerry Schurder); RSA (Denise Trollope); Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (Rebecca Pearce); Welsh Assembly Government (David Fletcher); Valuation Office Agency (Paul Sanderson, Vic East, Tony Capp)
Apologies were received from:
BT (David Malone); Boots (David Calladine); Exel (Gillian Richards); National Pharmaceutical Association (Trefor Williams); Forum of Private Business (Margaret de Wolf); Local Government Association (David Maddison); and Charles Partridge (RICS).
1 Minutes and Action Points from the meeting held on 22 July 2003
2 Matters arsing
3 Revaluation Timetable
3.1 The VOA had so far met all the targets specified in the revaluation timetable which had now been updated to reflect the milestones that had been passed so far. However, the Agency was now moving into a critical period during which valuation evidence would be assimilated and valuation schemes for the revaluation put in place. An important target for the Agency is to have completed 75% of all valuations by the end of January to provide the base data for ODPM/WAG modelling options for the 2005 Transitional Relief scheme and new multipliers.
4 Rental Information
Rent returns
4.1 The introduction of the “boomerang” form (VO 6004), a partially completed form used in rent review cases, had proved successful in terms of return rate. However, the return rate on the main rent return form (VO 6003) had been mixed so far. Poor return rates in London had been counter balanced to some extent by better levels elsewhere. Overall, only some 50% of the forms are returned, about the same as during the 2000 revaluation. This was disappointing given that the new forms had been trialled with ratepayers and been well received.
Introduction of civil penalty
4.2 The Local Government Act 2003 received Royal Assent on 18 September and introduced changes to the enforcement provisions on rent returns. The new provisions provide for a longer period to return the form and introduce a system of civil penalties in place of the previous criminal prosecution.
4.3 Notice of the new penalties would be included in forms issued from the end of October. Advice on the policy to be adopted by the VOA on the new system had been circulated to their network. Post meeting note: A Press Release explaining the broad approach that will be taken was issued on 12 November and was circulated to NRVF members separately. The text is also attached at Appendix 1 to these minutes.
Other initiatives
4.4 Over 50,000 records had been received under the Multiple Electronic Rental Information (MERI) initiative. 20,000 of these were in respect of non-bulk properties such as advertising rights and telecommunications masts, whilst participants in the Valuation Office Ratepayer Contact Scheme (VORC) had provided a further 15,000 of these records.
4.5 Instructions had been given to the VOA network to try to ensure that rent returns are not issued in cases where MERI data is received. However there may be delays in cases where data has been received but is not in the required format. In these cases, rent returns may be pursued until the matter is resolved.
4.6 The VORC scheme had been short listed for a IRRV Performance Award. The pilot scheme would be evaluated following completion of the revaluation in 2005. Paul Sanderson said that it was important to place on record the VOA’s appreciation of the strong commitment of HBOS (and Roger Littlewood in particular) to the development of the VORC scheme.
5 Summary Valuations and Valuation Schemes
5.1 Under current proposals, summary valuations will be published first on the internet following publication of draft lists at the end of September 2004, with hard copies being sent to ratepayers over the following six weeks. A final decision on the proposals was expected from the Management Board shortly. [Post meeting note: at their meeting on 23 October 2003, the VOA Management Board approved the funding required to produce hard copy summary valuations and publish them on the internet.]
5.2 Tim Kind said that it was important that there were clear links from paper based summary valuations and explanatory notes to any relevant information made available on the VOA website. Simple directions were needed. The VOA was hoping to provide a simple search facility with further links from the summary valuation into valuation schemes, on-line appeals and programming.
5.3 NRVF members were invited to advise the VOA of any concerns they had about the publication of summary valuations on the internet. A decision had already been taken not to publish any assessments based on receipts and expenditure methods on the grounds that this information was commercially sensitive. There may be other grounds for excluding individual summary valuations, including issues such as security.
5.3 The VOA’s intention was that most valuations would be made available on the internet but it would be prepared to suppress the whole or part of the summary valuation if there were good reasons to do so. Any organisation with specific concerns was invited to contact Tony Capp
5.4 Oliver Harwood agreed to provide a copy of a form used by English Heritage. The form enabled owners of listed buildings with concerns about security to request that photographs of the buildings should not be published on the English Heritage website. ACTION POINT (Oliver Harwood)
5.5 Summary valuations would be sent to participants in the VORC scheme for all the properties they occupied.
5.6 It was agreed that explanatory notes distributed with the summary valuations should explain, in simple terms, what a valuation scheme was. The explanatory notes were currently being redrafted and would be distributed to NRVF members for comment at a later stage. ACTION POINT (Tony Capp)
6 Communication Schedule and Activities
6.1 The VOA had developed a communications schedule highlighting the key events in the revaluation timetable and the actions planned to communicate on those issues with ratepayers. The schedule was subject to further discussions and would be circulated to members as soon as an updated version was available.
ACTION POINT (Tony Capp)
6.2 Proposals for the “mybusinessrates.gov.uk” website were being pursued and ODPM had secured funding to support its development. A further meeting to discuss the development of the site was planned for November. It was intended that the site would feature links to all billing authorities and the professional bodies. Links from business organisations were also important and NRVF members were reminded of the need to provide contact details for their webmasters to Tony Capp so that these links could be established.
ACTION POINT (all members)
6.3 It was hoped that the website would include a calculator allowing ratepayers to estimate their new bill once summary valuations were published. Concern was expressed over whether any calculator would be able to take account of entitlement to rate reliefs other than transitional relief, but this might be overcome by allowing ratepayers to calculate their liability gross of any relief as a “maximum liability”. Further advice could then be made available on the range of reliefs available.
6.4 Jerry Schurder highlighted the importance of ensuring that ratepayers understood what could be achieved in terms of prior agreement under the Right First Time initiative. He was aware that some agents were approaching ratepayers offering to enter discussions with VOA to prior agree their 2005 assessments, negating the need for appeals. Whilst one of the aims of Right First Time was to achieve a substantial reduction in appeal numbers, the VOA could not prior agree all assessments and a clear statement was needed from the VOA explaining what the objectives actually are and what is realistic. Post-meeting note: The VOA placed a message on its website on 11 November, advising ratepayers about these approaches. [Copy of text attached at Appendix 4].
6.5 NRVF members should warn their own members about these activities and should alert the RICS of any approaches they receive through Tony Capp
6.6 The VOA was keen to prior agree large complex and high value properties, such as London airports and the properties that would be coming out of prescription (e.g. water, electricity and gas networks). It was also running a limited pilot with three companies occupying retail properties exploring the extent to which some form of prior agreement may be possible. These companies had agreed to try to agree factual data about their properties in advance of the revaluation and agreed to provide full details of the rents paid for their properties. That should lead to greater accuracy in preparing the new valuations but, in view of the number of properties involved and their geographical spread, it will not be possible to prior agree all the individual assessments.
6.7 Rebecca Pearce outlined the ODPM’s publicity strategy (summary at Appendix 2). It was agreed that ODPM leaflets would be circulated for comment to the NRVF before publication where possible; she added that all would be subject to the Plain English Crystal Mark process. Nic Suggit had agreed to attend the next meeting of the NRVF to make a more detailed presentation on the ODPM strategy.
ACTION POINT (Nic Suggit – ODPM)
7 Local Ratepayer Valuation Forums (LRVFs)
7.1 All six pilot LRVFs had held meetings in the past few weeks. In North Wales and the South West, meetings had taken place to relaunch the Forums following a gap of a year since the evaluation of the initial pilot exercise had taken place. A number of former members had rejoined the Forum and further recruitment had taken place. Membership was in the region of twenty to thirty members at each Forum, although in some cases attendance at the meetings had been slightly lower. All Forums had made an encouraging start.
7.2 The agenda for the launch meetings had been based around revaluation issues, but in most meetings this had led on to discussion about such issues as the valuation of specific types of property, rate reliefs and policy developments on issues such as business improvement districts and small business relief. Future agendas would be constructed to address the issues raised by individual forums. This was important to maintain the interest of the members.
7.3 In Newcastle, the two LRVFs had both held their second meetings covering issues such as methods of valuation, unscrupulous rating agents and transitional relief. The Newcastle group was supporting a conference organised by the Teesside Chamber of Commerce to promote involvement in and understanding of the revaluation process. This is scheduled to take place in early December.
7.4 Tony Capp reported that, during discussions about the rating system members of both the Teesside and Newcastle LRVFs had agreed:
- ODPM should promote the simplification and standardisation of business rates bills (currently being explored through an IRRV initiative); and
- Under the transitional relief scheme for Revaluation 2005, ratepayers should receive the full benefit of any reduction in liability immediately.
ODPM noted these views. They expected to talk to all English LRVFs about their proposals for the 2005 transitional relief scheme.
7.5 Further meetings of all LRVFs were scheduled for January 2004 and minutes of all meetings would be published on the VOA website. A list of the billing authority areas covered by the LRVFs is attached at Appendix 3 and NRVF members were invited to continue to nominate members via Tony Capp ACTION POINT (all members)
8 Local Government Act 2003
8.1 The Act received Royal Assent on 18 September and provisions for changes to the enforcement of rent returns came into effect on that date (see paragraph 4 above). Other rating provisions within the Act would be introduced by commencement order. Provisions for Business Improvement Districts would come into effect on 18 November, allowing the necessary regulations to be made. The current “loophole” allowing food processing and packaging plants to qualify for the exemption from rating for agricultural property will be closed on the same day.
8.2 The extension of the agricultural exemption to share farming enterprises and mandatory rate relief for Community Amateur Sports Clubs would come into effect on 1 April 2004. Other provisions, including those for small business rate relief, would come into effect in April 2005.
9 RICS Practice Statement
9.1 The Practice Statement would be a joint statement with IRRV to be published in January and intended to counter the activities of “unscrupulous agents”. The intention was to ensure that all members providing rating consultancy advice make it abundantly clear to their prospective clients what service they would provide, what the possible outcomes might be, and how any fees would be calculated.
9.2 The terms of any contract should be clear. No “small print” would be allowed and the adviser would have to make it clear if instructions were being are sought for more than one revaluation. The intention was that there would be a mandatory requirement on members to provide a single sheet explanation of the rating and appeals system and the range of possible outcomes from appeals. It was understood that the document was likely to be regarded as the industry standard, and that the courts would have regard to it in any action taken against rating agents, even if they were not themselves members of the RICS or IRRV.
9.3 The RICS would share the draft with NRVF members. Ratepayers should be encouraged to ask agents if they comply with the code – as long as that assurance is then given in writing it would represent a binding commitment on any agent.
ACTION POINT (Jerry Schurder)
10 Any Other Business
Points discussed:
- Reference had been made in the annual report of Business in Leisure
and Sport to the work of the NRVF.
- Roger Culcheth confirmed that the Federation of Small Businesses
report on the future of the rating system had not yet been published.
- No conclusions had yet been reached on the range of issues to be considered by the ODPM’s
review of the balance of funding of local authorities. Jerry Schurder
said that he understood that the review might encompass localisation
of business
rates. No information was available on this point but Roger Culcheth
confirmed that the Federation remained opposed to localisation.
- A brief discussion took place on the proposals for the local
authority business growth incentive scheme; concern was expressed over
the complexity
of the recent consultation paper.
11 Date of next meeting
Dates for NRVF meetings in 2004, scheduled around key dates in the revaluation timetable, have been arranged as follows:
10 February 2004
11 May 2004
7 September 2004
7 December 2004
Valuation Office Agency
13 November 2003
Appendix 1
Press
Release Issued On 12 November 2003
Appendix 2 Summary of ODPM Publicity Strategy - Revaluation 2005
Aim of the strategy
We aim to increase awareness of the Revaluation
among ratepayers so that they can begin to anticipate the affect that the
Revaluation may have on their business rate bills at an early stage. We also
want to avoid any confusion that may arise as a result of introducing measures
contained in the Local Government Act 2003 at the same time as the Revaluation.
We aim to work closely with the VOA, local authorities and other stakeholders
to ensure that there is a "joined-up" approach to the Revaluation
and all parties have sufficient information to provide advice to ratepayers.
Publications
We plan to issue 3 publications for the Revaluation. The first will be a very
small leaflet to be issued with the 2004 rate bills aimed at raising awareness
of the Revaluation process and introducing ratepayers to changes resulting
from the Local Government Act 2003.
We will also issue a far more substantial booklet with rate bills in 2005. This will be dedicated to explaining the revaluation process: the new transition scheme, multipliers and appeals procedure.
In addition we will produce an updated version of our "Business Rates: A guide" leaflet. This will be available electronically on the website and on request. It will also be issued to local authorities and valuation offices.
IT Development
The Valuation Office Agency has purchased the mybusinessrates.gov.uk domain and intends to launch this as part of their website. ODPM intend to support the VOA in launching it as a separate website which would provide ratepayers with a single site about information for business rates. The site would be updated by both the VOA and the ODPM and all local authorities and business groups could include links to the site on their website.
In addition we will be looking at ways to make the business rates information on the ODPM website more accessible and easy to use.
Media handling
We will use the GNN to disseminate messages about the Revaluation on a local and national basis. ODPM and VOA are already working on a strategy of how to deal with media enquiries arising at different stages of the Revaluation process. ODPM and VOA will be writing articles for inclusion in specialist publications during the run-up to 2005.
We hope to use the National Ratepayer's Valuation Forum as a way of exploring our ideas about the Revaluation. ODPM will be producing a conference pack of materials which can be used by groups exploring the issues surrounding the Revaluation. ODPM is also considering hosting a conference about the Revaluation in the autumn of 2004.
Appendix 3
LOCAL RATEPAYER VALUATION FORUMS (LRVFS)
LRVFs are being piloted in three VOA Group Offices. There are six Forums in all, covering a total of 21 local authority areas. Membership of the LRVF is open to representatives of local, and trade associations, business organisations and ratepayers.
LRVFs operate in the following areas:
North Wales Group:
Flintshire, Wrexham and Denbighshire
Anglesey, Gwynedd and Conwy
South West Group:
Somerset County (covering Mendip, Sedgemoor, South Somerset, Taunton Deane, West Somerset council areas)
Plymouth (covering Caradon, Plymouth, South Hams, West Devon council areas)
Newcastle Group:
Newcastle and Gateshead
Teesside (covering Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and
Cleveland, Stockton-on-Tees)
Tony Capp
Valuation Office Agency
New Court
Carey Street
London
WC2
E-mail:Tony Capp
Tel: 0791 939 3581 (mobile)
Appendix 4
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