Official Statistics

Background Information Document

Published 23 September 2021

1. About this release

This release contains statistics relating to challenges and changes in England and Wales across the Council Tax Valuation Lists in England and Wales. It is the latest in the series of annual publications from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA). For the first time, this publication will include statistics by financial year from 1 April 1993 to 31 March 2021.

This update includes the following tables:

Properties by Council Tax band and geography in the financial years from 1 April 1993 to 31 March 2021

• Table CTSOP1.0: Number of properties by Council Tax band and administrative area

• Table CTSOP1.1: Number of properties by Council Tax band, local authority and lower and middle super output area

• Table CTSOP2.0: Number of properties by Council Tax band, Westminster Parliamentary Constituency and European Electoral Region

Properties by Council Tax band, property attributes and geography from 1 April 1993 to 31 March 2021

• Table CTSOP3.0: Number of properties by Council Tax band, property type and administrative area

• Table CTSOP3.1: Number of properties by Council Tax band, property type, local authority and lower and middle super output area

• Table CTSOP4.0: Number of properties by Council Tax band, property build period and administrative area

• Table CTSOP4.1: Number of properties by Council Tax band, property build period, local authority and lower and middle super output area

Properties inserted into and deleted from the Council Tax Valuation Lists from 1 April 1993 to 31 March 2021

• Table CTSOP5.0: Number of properties inserted into the Council Tax Valuation Lists by administrative area

• Table CTSOP6.0: Number of properties deleted from the Council Tax Valuation Lists by administrative area Properties by Council Tax band and administrative area as at 13 September 2021

• Table CTSOP1.0_SUP: Number of properties by Council Tax band and administrative area

The counts shown in all tables are calculated from domestic property data for England and Wales. The data for all tables, except table CTSOP1.0_SUP, were extracted from the VOA’s administrative database at 31 March 2021.

The data for table CTSOP1.0_SUP was extracted from the VOA’s administrative database at 13 September 2021. All properties counted in the publication were identified as a property for Council Tax purposes at the date of data extract. Counts in the tables are rounded to the nearest 10 with counts of zero being reported as ‘0’ and counts fewer than five reported as negligible and denoted by ‘-’.

Table CTSOP1.0_SUP contains the number of properties by Council Tax band and administrative area, and the data for this table were extracted from the VOA’s administrative database at 13 September 2021. This is consistent with the date used in the valuation lists published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government in their Council Taxbase official statistics.

If you have any queries regarding this release, please contact us at [email protected].

2. Background notes

The VOA is an Executive Agency of HM Revenue and Customs. One of the responsibilities of the VOA is to provide Council Tax bands for properties in England and Wales. It does not set the level of Council Tax nor collect the tax; these are tasks for local government. Council Tax is a local tax set by local authority districts to help pay for local services. It uses the relative value of properties to determine each household’s contribution to these local services.

The VOA has had responsibility for banding properties for Council Tax since the tax was first introduced in 1993. Before 1993, the VOA was responsible for the earlier system of domestic rates.

It is the duty of the VOA to make sure that each property is correctly assessed and placed in the right band. This ensures that there is a consistent and objective basis on which local authority districts can determine the amount they charge each household in Council Tax. The VOA maintains a high level of professionalism when carrying out this duty.

The VOA places each property into a valuation band; there are eight bands for properties in England and nine bands for properties in Wales. The valuation band is assigned to a property on the basis of its value at 1 April 1991 for England (for the 1993 Council Tax Valuation List) and 1 April 2003 for Wales (for the 2005 Council Tax Valuation List); this band then determines the amount of Council Tax to be paid. New properties are assigned a band based on what their value would have been on either 1 April 1991 (properties in England) or 1 April 2003 (properties in Wales). The basis of valuation is set down in regulations made under the Local Government Finance Act 1992. Minor updates were made to the initial regulations in 1994 but they have not been changed since.

The following tables show the breakdown of bands for England and Wales:

England

Band	Value of property (at 1 April 1991)
A	Up to £40,000
B	£40,001 up to £52,000
C	£52,001 up to £68,000
D	£68,001 up to £88,000
E	£88,001 up to £120,000
F	£120,001 up to £160,000
G	£160,001 up to £320,000
H	£320,001 and above

Wales

Band	Value of property (at 1 April 2003)
A	Up to £44,000
B	£44,001 up to £65,000
C	£65,001 up to £91,000
D	£91,001 up to £123,000
E	£123,001 up to £162,000
G	£223,001 up to £324,000
H	£324,001 up to £424,000
I	£424,001 and above

3. Data information and methodology

3.1 Updates to previously published statistics since 31 March 2020

Figures this year represent an increase of 207,420 (0.8%) properties with a Council Tax band in the year since 31 March 2020. This increase is higher in England (0.8%) than in Wales (0.4%). The following table shows the net change in properties with a Council Tax band between 31 March 2020 and 31 March 2021, by band and country.

Band	England and Wales	England	Wales
A	26,680	26,280	400
B	34,620	33,950	670
C	48,100	46,720	1,380
D	39,430	38,300	1,130
E	30,860	29,770	1,090
F	17,620	16,970	650
G	8,560	8,320	240
H	1,560	1,530	30
I	10	..	10
Total	207,420	201,850	5,580

Table notes: Counts are rounded to the nearest 10. ‘..’ denotes not applicable - bands in England range from A to H only.

3.2 Updates to previously published statistics

For the first time, this publication will include annual statistics from 1993 to 2021. Statistics published in this release have been calculated from domestic property data for England and Wales and extracted from the VOA’s administrative database as at 31 March 2021. Because annual statistics for 31 March 2011 to 31 March 2020 have previously been published (please see the VOA Council Tax statistics page and our previous releases page), this release contains updated figures for these years. The following tables show the total number of properties in England and in Wales that were published in previous releases compared with the total number of properties published in this release.

England

Statistics as at	Figure previously published	Figure published in this release	Difference
31 March 2011	22,974,290	22,974,290	0
31 March 2012	23,116,230	23,116,230	0
31 March 2013	23,256,670	23,256,670	0
31 March 2014	23,394,740	23,394,740	0
31 March 2015	23,560,440	23,560,440	0
31 March 2016	23,765,650	23,766,480	830
31 March 2017	23,986,070	23,982,720	-3,350
31 March 2018	24,203,070	24,203,070	0
31 March 2019	24,435,870	24,435,870	0
31 March 2020	24,679,590	24,679,590	0

Table note: Counts are rounded to the nearest 10.

Wales

Statistics as at	Figure previously published	Figure published in this release	Difference
31 March 2011	1,378,150	1,378,150	0
31 March 2012	1,386,340	1,386,340	0
31 March 2013	1,393,340	1,393,340	0
31 March 2014	1,401,300	1,401,300	0
31 March 2015	1,408,220	1,408,220	0
31 March 2016	1,416,500	1,416,530	30
31 March 2017	1,424,290	1,424,220	-70
31 March 2018	1,432,660	1,432,660	0
31 March 2019	1,440,920	1,440,920	0
31 March 2020	1,449,400	1,449,400	0

Table note: Counts are rounded to the nearest 10.

3.3 Assigning geographies

The statistical geographies used in this release have been assigned using two methodologies:

Method 1: Linking VOA BA Codes to Office for National Statistics (ONS) statistical geographies

Each property with a Council Tax band held on the VOA’s database is assigned to a Billing Authority, each of which have a unique Billing Authority code (BA code). These BA codes have been linked to the codes and names used in the UK statistical geographies maintained by the ONS.

Method 2: Linking VOA postcodes to ONS National Statistics Postcode Look-up File (NSPL)

Each property’s individual postcodes held on the VOA’s database have been linked to those appearing in the February 2021 version of the NSPL. On average, around 0.03% of the records in each financial year could not be matched with the NSPL. Counts for these records appear in the area ‘Unmatched’ row and may introduce a marginal geographical bias to the data.

Note on assigned geographies

Tables where different methods of geography assignment have been used should not be compared. The following table details which method was used in each table of this release:

Table	Geography assignment method
CTSOP1.0	Method 1 - BA codes
CTSOP1.0_SUP	Method 1 - BA codes
CTSOP1.1	Method 2 - Postcodes
CTSOP2.0	Method 2 - Postcodes
CTSOP3.0	Method 1 - BA codes
CTSOP3.1	Method 2 - Postcodes
CTSOP4.0	Method 1 - BA codes
CTSOP4.1	Method 2 - Postcodes
CTSOP5.0	Method 1 - BA codes
CTSOP6.0	Method 1 - BA codes

For further information on the area codes used in this release, please refer to the please refer to the ONS Administrative Geography Guidance.

3.4 Assigning Property Type and Build period

Each entry on the Council Tax Valuation lists has a number of ‘Property Attribute Details’ (PADs) recorded, which are codes that describe the features of the property. One of these PADs is the property type code; for this release, this code has been grouped to give a simplified property type category. If a property has no property type code recorded, or if the property type is recorded as ‘House - Unknown’, it is counted as having an unknown property type. The look-up table in appendix 1 shows how the property type code has been grouped into the categories shown in this release.

Another PAD used in this release is the age code, which is a single letter that relates to the time period in which the property was built, for example, between 1993 and 1999. In this release, this time period is described as the ‘build period’. If a property has no age code recorded, it is counted as having an unknown build period. The look-up table in appendix 2 shows the age codes and their associated build periods.

At the introduction of the 1993 Council Tax Valuation List, most records were held in paper format. The VOA has been continually working to update and improve the accuracy of the Council Tax Valuation Lists and, by 31 March 2004, were able to record the property type of most of these properties electronically in the VOA’s administrative database. The following table shows the percentage of the total number of properties with an unknown property type, properties with an unknown number of bedrooms and properties with an unknown build period in England and Wales as at 31 March each year.

Date	Properties with an unknown property type	Properties with an unknown number of bedrooms	Properties with an unknown build period
1 April 1993	34.8%	2.4%	36.8%
31 March 1994	30.1%	2.7%	32.4%
31 March 1995	25.6%	2.8%	28.0%
31 March 1996	22.4%	2.9%	24.9%
31 March 1997	19.3%	3.1%	21.9%
31 March 1998	16.0%	3.1%	18.6%
31 March 1999	11.7%	3.0%	14.2%
31 March 2000	7.9%	3.0%	10.1%
31 March 2001	5.3%	2.9%	7.5%
31 March 2002	3.7%	2.7%	5.8%
31 March 2003	2.8%	2.5%	4.6%
31 March 2004	1.6%	1.2%	2.1%
31 March 2005	1.2%	0.9%	1.6%
31 March 2006	1.1%	0.8%	1.3%
31 March 2007	1.0%	0.8%	1.2%
31 March 2008	1.0%	0.8%	1.2%
31 March 2009	0.9%	0.8%	1.1%
31 March 2010	0.9%	0.7%	1.1%
31 March 2011	0.8%	0.7%	1.0%
31 March 2012	0.8%	0.7%	1.0%
31 March 2013	0.8%	0.7%	1.0%
31 March 2014	0.8%	0.7%	1.0%
31 March 2015	0.8%	0.7%	1.0%
31 March 2016	0.8%	0.7%	1.0%
31 March 2017	0.8%	0.7%	1.0%
31 March 2018	0.8%	0.7%	1.0%
31 March 2019	0.8%	0.7%	1.0%
31 March 2020	0.8%	0.6%	0.9%
31 March 2021	0.8%	0.6%	0.9%

Table note: Percentages are rounded to one decimal place.

3.5 Properties with an Improvement Indicator

If a property has been improved or extended since it was placed in a Council Tax band, the VOA cannot review the banding to take account of the alterations until the property is sold. These properties are flagged with an ‘Improvement Indicator’ on the Council Tax Valuation Lists. This means that the PADs held on the VOA’s administrative database for properties with an Improvement Indicator may not reflect the current property details. Once a sale takes place, the banding will be reviewed and the PADs may be updated.

3.6 Effects of boundary changes on the Council Tax lists

When changes to the boundaries of local authorities result in a large number of properties moving from one billing authority to another, the VOA processes these changes by removing these properties from the Council Tax Valuation Lists. The properties are then reinserted into the list with the property’s new billing authority. This process accounts for the large number of insertions (table CTSOP5.0) and deletions (table CTSOP6.0) due to boundary changes that occurred between 1994-95 and 1997-98.

4. Data quality

4.1 Suitable data sources

The information supplied in the tables are based on administrative data held within the VOA operational database. Because it is a statutory requirement of the VOA to maintain accurate valuation lists, the data are considered accurate. However, while the VOA actively seeks to maintain accurate Valuation Lists for Council Tax bandings, some reliance is placed upon the taxpayer to notify the VOA of any inaccuracies to their entry in the Valuation List and billing authorities to notify the VOA of any changes (including new builds, demolitions or alterations). There is some uncertainty and variability in this process and all administrative data may be subject to processing and system errors. Consequently, although the VOA has made every effort to ensure accuracy of the data underpinning this publication, it is possible that some errors remain. We reflect this by rounding counts to the nearest 10 and suppressing counts lower than 5.

4.2 Assured quality

Our quality assurance follows the approach set out in the VOA Quality Policy.

As part of the production of this publication, quality assurance takes place:

• during the valuation of properties

• as part of the creation of the data which underpins the publication

• as part of the coding which produces the publication outputs

• as part of automated and manual checks of outputs

• using a comprehensive QA Check List and a QA Issues Log

5. Uses of the data

This publication is being released as part of a drive towards making the VOA’s data more accessible as well as continuing to improve, and make more consistent, presentation of information in order to assist users conducting their own analysis of VOA data. The release will support the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) and Welsh Government (WG) in carrying out their duties and will form part of a range of data used in the calculation of the New Homes Bonus (data from table CTSOP1.0_SUP) and the Family Annex Grants (England) and Revenue Support Grants (Wales). The data will also be used to inform government policy, respond to Freedom of Information requests and to parliamentary questions as well as to conduct operational analyses to support the VOA.

The statistics in this publication relate to England and Wales only. Property valuations are not carried out by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) in Scotland and Northern Ireland, where the valuation law and practice differ from England and Wales.

The VOA welcomes feedback from users on the information provided in the release. Please forward any comments to [email protected].

6. CSV metadata

Files which provide the variable names and descriptions appearing in the CSV files are included in this release; they can be found within the ‘CSV Metadata’ zip file on the release page.

7. Timeliness and punctuality

Timeliness refers to the lapse of time between publication and the period to which the data refer. Punctuality refers to the gap between planned and actual publication dates.

This release is published on an annual basis. The data extract for all tables except table CTSOP1.0_SUP was taken on 31 March 2021. The data extract for table CTSOP1.0_SUP was taken on 13 September 2021 (i.e. the second Monday of September) due to MHCLG requirements. This release is published on 23 September 2021, which is 10 days after the date of the latest data extract.

Releases are always published on pre-announced dates at 9:30am. Pre-announcement of the precise date occurs up to four weeks before publication. The VOA always pre-announces the month of publication in our 12-month planning schedule.

8. Relevance

Relevance is the degree to which statistical outputs meet users’ needs.

It is important that the statistics produced meet the needs of users, both in coverage and in content. These statistics evolved largely in response to Freedom of Information requests and Parliamentary Questions and were further developed with input from a CT Statistics Advisory Panel, which involved key users of the data.

9. Coherence and comparability

Coherence is the degree to which data that are derived from different sources or methods, but refer to the same topic, are similar. Comparability is the degree to which data can be compared over time and domain, for example, geographic level.

This release contains updated figures for 1993 to 2021. These statistics have been produced from the same source and use a coherent and consistent methodology. They can be compared with previous releases with one exception: a methodology change made in 2020 means that statistics in tables CTSOP3.0, CTSOP3.1, CTSOP4.0 and CTSOP4.1, which present the number of properties by property attributes, may only be directly compared with these tables in the 2020 release. For more information, please refer to the ‘Data Quality’ section on page 4 of the background information from the 2020 release. However, because this release contains a complete time series for each of the tables, there should be no need to compare it with any of the previous releases.

In accordance with ONS guidance on providing statistics by electoral geographies, table CTSOP2.0, which presents number of properties by Parliamentary Constituency, includes European Electoral Regions (EER). These areas are labelled as ‘regions’ (REGL) in other tables. Although the labelling of these areas is different, the geographical coverage of each European Electoral Region and the corresponding region are identical.

Tables where different methods of geography assignment have been used should not be compared. See section Assigning geographies for further details.

10. Accessibility and clarity

Accessibility is the ease with which users are able to access the data, also reflecting the format in which the data are available and the availability of supporting information. Clarity refers to the quality and sufficiency of the release details, and accompanying advice.

The release is available free of charge. All official statistics are made available primarily as Excel spreadsheets with comparable tables in CSV format (see section CSV metadata), a background information document, and a statistical summary document.

11. Confidentiality, transparency and security

Access to the data and release during its publication is limited to the statistics production team only. Occasionally, valuation experts may be consulted as part of the quality assurance process. The list of pre-release recipients is published alongside the release.

Further information can found within the VOA Confidentiality and Access policy.

12. Further information

More detailed information on Council Tax bands can be found at https://www.gov.uk/council-tax-bands. Timings of future releases are regularly placed on the Agency’s website in the upcoming releases section09.

For further information on the area codes used in this release, please refer to the ONS Administrative Geography Guidance.

The ONS has used the VOA’s Council Tax data to supplement Census 2021. Further information is available at https://blog.ons.gov.uk/2020/07/31/census-2021-for-the-first-time-ons-is-using-administrative-data-to-count-number-of-rooms/

The English Housing Survey is a continuous national survey commissioned by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). It collects information about people’s housing circumstances and the condition and energy efficiency of housing in England. Further information is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/english-housing-survey.

13. Glossary

Annexe – a building, or part of a building, which has been constructed or adapted for use as separate living accommodation.

Billing Authority – a local authority empowered to collect Council Tax on behalf of itself and other local authorities in its area.

Property – a separate unit of living accommodation, together with any garden, yard, garage or other outbuildings attached to it, all occupied by the same person(s) and within the same area of land.

Property Attribute – the characteristics of a property that are used to describe a property.

14. Appendices

14.1 Appendix 1: Property types

The following look-up table shows how VOA type codes are grouped together to create the property types shown in Tables CTSOP3.0 and CTSOP3.1.

For further information please visit the National Archives website at the following location: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20141002130923/http://www.voa.gov.uk/corporate/Publications/PropertyDetailsGuide/index.html

VOA Type code	VOA Description	Property type
BC	Bungalow in a cluster	Bungalow
BD	Detached bungalow	Bungalow
BE	End terraced bungalow	Bungalow
BS	Semi-detached bungalow	Bungalow
BT	Mid terraced bungalow	Bungalow
BZ	Bungalow type unknown	Bungalow
FC	Non-purpose built flat self-contained	Flat / Maisonette
FD	Flat in 2 storey detached block of 2	Flat / Maisonette
FE	Flat in 2 storey block end terraced	Flat / Maisonette
FK	Flat with lift in group 61 only	Flat / Maisonette
FL	Purpose built flat with lift	Flat / Maisonette
FM	Flat without lift in group 61 only	Flat / Maisonette
FN	Non-purpose built flat not self-contained	Flat / Maisonette
FO	Purpose built flat without lift	Flat / Maisonette
FS	Flat in 2 storey block semi-detached	Flat / Maisonette
FT	Flat in 2 storey block mid terraced	Flat / Maisonette
FZ	Flat or maisonette – type unknown	Flat / Maisonette
MC	Non-purpose built maisonette self-contained	Flat / Maisonette
MK	Maisonette with lift in group 61 only	Flat / Maisonette
ML	Purpose built maisonette with lift	Flat / Maisonette
MM	Maisonette without lift in group 61 only	Flat / Maisonette
MN	Non-purpose built maisonette not self-contained	Flat / Maisonette
MO	Purpose built maisonette without lift	Flat / Maisonette
HC	House in a cluster	Terraced House
HE	End terraced house	Terraced House
HT	Mid terraced house	Terraced House
HS	Semi-detached house	Semi-Detached House
HD	Detached house	Detached House
AN	Family Annexe	Annexe
CD	Caravan	Caravan / Houseboat / Mobile Home
TH	Mobile home or houseboat	Caravan / Houseboat / Mobile Home
HZ	House – type unknown	Unknown
No code present	Unknown	Unknown

14.2 Appendix 2: Build periods

The following look-up table shows how VOA Age codes are grouped together to create the build periods shown in Tables CTSOP4.0 and CTSOP4.1.

For further information please visit the National Archives website at the following location: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20141002130923/http://www.voa.gov.uk/corporate/Publications/PropertyDetailsGuide/index.html

Age Code	Build period
A	Pre-1900
B	1900-1918
C	1919-1929
D	1930-1939
E [Note 1]	1945-1954
F	1955-1964
G	1965-1972
H	1973-1982
J	1983-1992
K	1993-1999
L	2000-2008
M	2009
N	2010
O	2011
P	2012
Q	2013
R	2014
S	2015
T	2016
U	2017
V	2018
W	2019
X	2020
Y	2021
No code present	Unknown

Note 1: There is no age code for years 1940 to 1944, because no properties are recorded as built in this time period on the VOA database.