1.1 This instruction applies to all garden centres including retail nurseries
1.2 This class of property is widely disparate in type, ranging from the small nursery selling plants to the large national chain operated centres.
List description: garden centre and premises
Primary description code: CX
SCAT code: 114
Suffix: S
Bulk class: M (Miscellaneous)
3.1 The Garden Centre Class Co-ordination team (CCT) has overall responsibility for the co-ordination of this class. The team is responsible for the approach to and the accuracy and consistency of garden centres and plant nurseries.
4.1 This is a Specialist class. The Property Data Unit (PDU) is responsible for referencing and gathering facts, the National Valuation Unit (NVU) is responsible for valuation.
4.2 The Garden Centre Class Co-ordination team will deliver practice notes describing the valuation basis for revaluation and provide advice as necessary during the life of the rating lists. Caseworkers have a responsibility to:
5.1 There is no specific legal framework in relation to garden centres but this class also includes land and buildings used in connection with market gardens and nursery grounds which are generally exempt under Schedule 5 Paragraph 3 (c) Local Government Finance Act 1988 (LGFA 1988) (as amended by Non-Domestic Rating (Nursery Grounds) Act 2018).
A building is an agricultural building if it is not a dwelling and:
(a) It is occupied together with agricultural land and is used solely in connection with agricultural operations on that or other agricultural land.
(b) It is or forms part of a market garden and is used solely in connection with agricultural operations at the market garden, or
(c) It is or forms part of a nursery ground and is used solely in connection with agricultural operations at the nursery ground.
Exemptions
5.2Exemptions from non-domestic rating are discussed in VOA Rating Manual Section 2 Valuation Principles Part 6 Exemptions D Agricultural Premises.
If a garden centre hereditament includes a plant nursery which meets the exemption criteria and is therefore exempt from rating under Schedule 5 of LGFA 1988, the words part exempt should be added to the description in the Rating List.
Definition
5.4Nursery ground is not defined in LGFA 1988, but can be taken to mean land in, or on which, young or immature trees and/ or young plants are reared (not necessarily being grown in the actual soil of the nursery) until fit for transplanting or sale: the emphasis on young plants should be noted. Even though plants are raised in containers on the land rather than by rootstock in the soil, such grounds should be treated as exempt.
The Provisions of Para 3(c) Schedule 5 LGFA 1988 Nursery Grounds
5.5The Non-domestic rating (Nursery Grounds) Act 2018 has extended the exemption of agricultural premises by the addition of a new sub section Para 3 (c) to Schedule 5 so that a building now also qualifies as an agricultural building if it is or forms part of a nursery ground and is used solely in connection with agricultural operations at the nursery ground. The Act has effect to both England and Wales and is retrospective having effect in England for financial years beginning on or after 1 April 2015 and in Wales for the financial years beginning on or after 1 April 2017.
5.6The purpose of this new legislation was to remove the effect on valuation practice for non-domestic rating of the 2015 Court of Appeal decision in Tunnel Tech Ltd v Reeves (Valuation Officer) [2015] EWCA Civ 718 (9 July 2015). The VO argued that the use of the building was in keeping with a nursery ground and as the activities went on within a building it could not be exempt from rating.
5.7The judgment noted that paragraph 3(b) did not include nursery grounds in the definition of agricultural buildings. Therefore, a nursery ground that is located entirely indoors did not constitute an agricultural building and was not exempt from business rates. The Court of Appeal dismissed Tunnel Techs case but Para 3(c) has now rendered this decision obsolete by extending the definition of Nursery Ground to include buildings used for nursery purposes.
5.8As noted above nursery ground is not defined in LGFA 1988, but can be akin to mean land in, or on which, young or immature trees and/or young plants are reared (not necessarily being grown in the actual soil of the nursery) until fit for transplanting or sale: the emphasis on young plants should be noted. Often these sites are known as plant nurseries. Even though plants are raised in containers on the land rather than by rootstock in the soil, such grounds should be treated as exempt. The effect of paragraph 3(c) is to extend the exemption to buildings used in the same way. These will typically be (but not exclusively) glasshouses or polytunnels used for the rearing of seedlings, plugs or small plants which will be sold on to someone else for growing on to their mature state, for sale to or for use by the end consumer.
5.10Generally, garden centres where container-grown plants and young trees are displayed and sold retail to the public will not come within the definition of nursery grounds. There may, however, be parts of the more traditional type of garden centre (which may, indeed, have once been called a nursery) where some rearing of seedlings and young plants or trees still takes place. The land or buildings on within which this work is carried out will be exempt as nursery ground