Agenda item

Nicola Morton, Head of Local Government Finance, introduced the paper and the LGA’s response to the government’s consultation on detailed regulations implementing the new Check Challenge and Appeal system for business rates appeals.

From April 2017 the Government is introducing a new system for dealing with challenges to rateable values; this is known as Check Challenge Appeal.  Ratepayers will be required to firstly ‘check’ the facts that their rateable value is based on. They may then go on to put in a formal challenge or proposal which must be accompanied by an alternative valuation and all the evidence to support it. Only after these steps have been completed can a valuation be appealed. A ratepayer will not be able to introduce new evidence at appeal stage. There will also be a fee for submitting an appeal, and fines for ratepayers that provide false information knowingly, recklessly or carelessly.

Nicola Morton drew the Board’s attention to three points in the draft response:

·         The LGA has concerns that the proposed time limits still allow for the process to be dragged out. The recommendation is a time limit of six months for proposals in most cases, mirroring the situation in Scotland.

·         When cases do go to appeal, the new regulations will result in the Valuation Tribunal only ordering a change to rateable value when the valuation appealed against is outside the bounds of reasonable judgement.

·         The new valuations do give new rights to authorities to receive and give information to the VOA, which the LGA welcomes. However, there are concerns that councils will no longer have the right to make proposals which do not relate to their own premises. The LGA’s view is that councils should continue to have these rights.

The Board felt local authorities should continue to have rights to make proposals under the regulations that do not relate to their own premises. Members wanted information and data on how often this power is currently used.

Decision:

The Board agreed the response to the consultation.

Action:

Officers to forward the response to DCLG.