Valuation Office Agency
Background
In the Autumn Statement 2013, the government announced the introduction of a commitment to resolve 95% of all outstanding appeals by July 2015:
1.164 - The rating system should provide an easy to use and prompt opportunity for ratepayers to understand their rateable value and challenge it if necessary. However, the current system lacks transparency, and large volumes of unsuccessful, sometimes speculative, appeals create delays for other businesses. Progress has been made on reducing the backlog in appeals, but it is still too high with over 168,000 cases outstanding as at September 2013. The government: announces a commitment to resolve 95% of outstanding cases by July 2015.
This article reports progress against this commitment, and the methodology used to monitor this progress.
Methodology
For the purpose of this release, appeals are defined as Interested Person Proposals (IPPs) and Land Tribunal (LT) cases. A formal proposal by the ratepayer to alter the rating list entry, typically attributable to a challenge to the assessed rateable value or a change of circumstance of the property, as well as physical changes in the locality. Please note a challenge only becomes an appeal when the proposal is referred to the Valuation Tribunal Service.
For the purpose of this release, appeals are considered to be outstanding when they have not been resolved and the Rating List has not been updated as at 30 September 2013. This does not include appeals that are registered after 30 September 2013 (and which may now be outstanding). Also if an outstanding appeal has been resolved and is then reinstated after 30 September 2013 this will not be included in the total outstanding
Appeals are no longer outstanding when they have been resolved, and the Rating List has been updated where changes have been made. This would include any appeals that are subsequently withdrawn.
This release covers both the 2005 and 2010 Rating Lists, and provides totals for those cases outstanding and those cases cleared (which are grouped according to the quarter within which the Rating List was updated).
Results
The following table and chart below show progress on a quarterly basis against resolvingInterested Person Proposals (IPPs) and Land Tribunal (LT) cases that were outstanding at the end of September 2013 in England.
