Official Statistics

Statistical commentary

Updated 8 July 2021

About this release:

This release includes statistics on challenges made by taxpayers (or their representatives) against the 2010 and 2017 local rating lists up to 31 December 2020. It also includes statistics on reviews of rating assessments (known as “reports”) that have either been initiated by the VOA or a billing authority, when new information becomes available.

Responsible Statistician:

Jim Nixon

Statistical enquiries:

[email protected]

Date of next publication:

April 2021

1. Key findings

As at 31 December 2020, the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) had:

• Registered 440,600 checks under the Check, Challenge, Appeal (CCA) system. 97,850 of these were registered in the last quarter (1 October 2020 to 31 December 2020)

• Registered 90,710 challenges under the CCA system. 22,930 of these were in the last quarter

In addition:

• 419,730 checks and 24,220 challenges have been resolved. 4,690 challenges have also been marked as incomplete
• In the last quarter, 91,850 checks and 4,680 challenges have been resolved
• 175,800 Interested Persons (IPs) and 14,540 agents had registered to use the check and challenge service
• The VOA have approved 518,520 property claims by businesses

While the statistics do not include the number of appeals made under CCA, as these are the responsibility of the independent Valuation Tribunal Service (VTS), the VTS publish their latest statistics on their website.

For Wales, as at 31 December 2020 the VOA had:

• Received 4,000 challenges in the last quarter, with 1,140 challenges being resolved in the same period. 17,850 remain outstanding

For the 2010 list, covering both England and Wales, the quarterly statistics also show that, as at 31 December 2020, there were around 36,010 appeals outstanding, down from 43,230 appeals three months previously. These include those awaiting listing, relisting or decisions from the Valuation Tribunal, which the VOA do not control, and also some highly complex cases relating to specialist properties where a longer timeframe is necessary to settle the appeals.

2. England 2017 Rating List

There has been an increase during the COVID-19 pandemic of interested persons using VOA services which is reflected in the statistics shown in this release.

Before anyone can access more detailed valuation data about a property, they must prove that they have a legal interest in the property under the non-domestic rating legislation, for example as an owner or occupier or both. To do this, they are required to register to use the system and then can ‘claim their property’ through the VOA’s online service by providing proof of their relationship to the property, such as a copy of a business rates or utility bill. Once the VOA confirm the interested person’s relationship to the property, the claim is approved and the interested person is able to view or request the detailed valuation for that property. The interested party can then start the CCA process. More information is available from GOV.UK.

Source: Challenges and Changes against the 2017 local rating list, England, December 2020 (Table 1.2)

The number of interested persons (IPs) and agents registering for CCA each month is shown in Figure 1. More than 90% of registrations are from interested persons rather than agents. Increases seen in March and April 2020 is a spike attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: Challenges and Changes against the 2017 local rating list, England, December 2020 (Table 1.3)

The number of approved property claims by month is shown in Figure 2. May and June 2020 are the months with the highest number of approved claims. The lag from the peak shown in Figure 1 reflects the time taken from a customer registering for CCA to then claiming a property and having their claim approved by a Valuation Officer.

Source: Challenges and Changes against the 2017 local rating list, England, December 2020 (Tables 2.1-2.2)

Figure 3 shows the number of CCA checks received by month and case status. The 97,850 checks received in the quarter to 31 December 2020 is 22% of the total received since the start of the list in April 2017. The two spikes are attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic and were coincident with government-imposed restrictions on business.

Source: Challenges and Changes against the 2017 local rating list, England, December 2020 (Tables 2.1-2.2)

Figure 4 shows the number of CCA Challenges received by month and case status. August 2020 saw the highest amount of Challenges received in a single month by the VOA. The spike is a consequence of the previous rise seen in Checks (figure 3) attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: Challenges and Changes against the 2017 local rating list, England, December 2020 (Tables 3.1-3.2)

Figure 5 shows that the number of assessment reviews received and resolved against the England 2017 list had a slight decrease in the quarter to 31 December 2020.

3. Wales 2017 rating list

Source: Challenges and Changes against the 2017 local rating list, Wales, December 2020 (Tables 1.1-1.2)

Figure 6 shows that the number of challenges received against the Wales 2017 list increased in the quarter to 31 December 2020. This can be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic and coincided with government-imposed restrictions on business.

Source: Challenges and Changes against the 2017 local rating list, Wales, December 2020 (Tables 3.1-3.2)

Figure 7 shows that the number of assessment reviews received against the Wales 2017 list increased in the quarter to 31 December 2020. Assessment reviews being resolved decreased slightly in the same period.

4. Background notes

This release includes statistics on challenges made by taxpayers (or their representatives) against the 2010 and 2017 local rating lists. It also includes statistics on reviews of rating assessments (known as reports) that have either been initiated by the VOA or a billing authority, when new information becomes available.

Previous quarters’ figures include retrospective changes so will not necessarily be the same as those from previous publications.

Figures in the release note may be rounded to a different level of accuracy from the figures in the MS Excel tables and should therefore be considered more definitive.

The statistics are derived from VOA’s administrative database and are published at national, regional and billing authority level.

The VOA is required, by the Local Government Finance Act 1988, to compile and maintain accurate rating lists specifying a rateable value for all non-domestic rateable properties in England and Wales. These rateable values provide the basis for national non-domestic rates bills, which are issued by billing authorities. There is a local rating list for each billing authority. However, for simplicity, we have referred to these throughout this publication as one combined ‘rating list’ for those local lists effective from 1 April 2010, and, likewise, one combined ‘rating list’ for those local rating lists effective from 1 April 2017.

Ratepayers, owners, and in limited circumstances, relevant authorities and other persons (known formally as Interested Persons) can make a challenge to alter the rating list if they think an entry is incorrect. Challenges can also be made on behalf of interested persons by their professional representatives.

The process for challenging the rating list currently differs between England and Wales. In Wales a challenge, known as a proposal, is made to the Valuation Officer asking them to change the entry in the rating list. After a period of discussion if the Valuation Officer cannot reach agreement with the ratepayer the matter will then be referred to the Valuation Tribunal Service, at which stage it becomes an appeal. In England a new three stage appeals system was introduced in 2017, called Check, Challenge, Appeal (CCA).

More information about CCA can be found in the Background Information document.

5. Further information

More detailed information on the 2017 local rating list is available on the Agency’s website at the following location: https://www.gov.uk/correct-your-business-rates

Further information on the area codes used in this release please refer to the ONS’s website at the following location:https://www.ons.gov.uk/methodology/geography/geographicalproducts/namescodesandlookups/namesandcodeslistings