Official Statistics

Release notes, 28 August 2014

Published 28 August 2014

Applies to England and Wales

Council Tax valuation lists: challenges - England (1993) and Wales (2005)

Summary

There were 71,000 challenges against entries in the England (1993) and Wales (2005) Council Tax Valuation Lists that were cleared in the year ending March 2014.

Of the challenges cleared, 38,000 were band reviews, 29,000 were proposals and 4,000 were appeals. (Note: The proposal system in Wales differs from the English system in that all proposals, if unresolved, are automatically transmitted as appeals to the Valuation Tribunal (VT). Counts of proposals for Wales are recorded under appeals percentages)

Nearly 70% of all the challenges cleared in this period resulted in no change to the council tax band.

Of the band reviews, 73% resulted in no change to the council tax band; 27% resulted in a reduction to the council tax band and less than 1% resulted in an increase to the council tax band.

Most proposals (64%) resulted in no change to the council tax band while 17% resulted in a reduction to the council tax band and less than 1% resulted in an increase to the council tax band. The remaining proposals resulted in the property being deleted from the list or a split or a merger.

Of the appeals, 64% resulted in no change to the council tax band, 23% resulted in a reduction to the council tax band and less than 1% resulted in an increase to the council tax band. The remaining appeals resulted in the property being deleted from the list or a split or a merger. 60% of appeals were settled before reaching the tribunal stage.

About this release

This release provides statistics on the challenges made to entries in the England (1993) and Wales (2005) Council Tax Valuation Lists for 2013-14 financial year. The release also includes outcomes from challenges cleared over the same period. Breakdowns by administrative area also included.

This is an update to a previous release last published on 30 May 2013, which can be found at: http://www.voa.gov.uk/corporate/statisticalReleases/130530_CouncilTaxChallenges.html

The VOA has responsibility for maintaining accurate council tax bands. Where evidence suggests that a banding may be inaccurate, a taxpayer can request a band review. The VOA will investigate and, if necessary, change the band.

In certain circumstances, set out in legislation, a taxpayer can submit a ’proposal’ - for example, if they are within six months of first moving into a property. The VOA will review the band and issue a decision.

If the taxpayer is not satisfied with the decision, they have the right to appeal to an independent Valuation Tribunal.

The proposal system in Wales differs from the English system in that all proposals, if unresolved, are automatically transmitted as appeals to the Valuation Tribunal (VT).

This publication presents the outcomes of the challenges to the council tax valuation list (i.e. Band Reviews, Proposals and Appeals) which were settled during the period from 01 April 2013 to 31 March 2014.

Outcomes of challenges include:

• changes to council tax bands,
• an entry for a dwelling being deleted from a list e.g. where a property has been demolished,
• a list entry may be split into two or more entries e.g. when a house has been converted into a series of apartments.
• one or more entries on the list being merged to form a single entry e.g. a series of apartments are converted to a single dwelling
• a new entry being added to the list e.g. where a new dwelling has been built.

The figures in this release are derived from data for England and Wales, extracted from the Valuation Office Agency’s administrative database as at 31 March 2014.

Counts are rounded to the nearest ten with counts fewer than five but greater than 0 reported as negligible and denoted by ‘-‘. Totals may not sum due to rounding.

Data quality

The information supplied in the tables is based upon administrative data held within the VOA’s operational database. The VOA has made every effort to ensure their accuracy.

Use made of the data

This publication is being released as part of a general drive towards making VOAs data more accessible to the public. The data are used to inform government policy and conduct operational analyses to support the Valuation Office Agency.

Background notes

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) is a central government agency responsible, amongst other things, for banding homes for council tax purposes. It does not set the level of council tax nor collect the money, which is the task of local government.

The VOA has had responsibility for banding properties for council tax since the tax was first introduced in 1993, and before then the VOA was responsible for rating list underlying the earlier system of domestic rates. Council tax is a local tax, set by local councils, to help pay for local services. It uses the relative value of homes to determine each household’s contribution for these local services.

It is the duty of the VOA to act fairly and impartially, and to make sure that each home is correctly assessed and placed in the right band. This is so that there is the fairest possible basis on which local councils can send bills to taxpayers for the right amount of council tax – no more, no less. In carrying out this duty, the VOA operates to professional standards.

The VOA’s job is to place each home in one of eight valuation bands (nine bands in Wales) on the basis of its value at 1st April 1991 (1st April 2003 in Wales), which then determines the amount to be paid. New homes are assigned a band on the basis of what they would have been valued at in 1991 (2003 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 then.

Glossary of terms

The most relevant terms for this release are explained below.

**Appeal **– a council taxpayer can appeal against a decision on a proposal to an independent Valuation Tribunal.

Area Code – a unique identifier for administrative geographies as specified by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Band Review – a band review is carried out when a potential inaccuracy is brought to the attention of the VOA. The taxpayer must explain why they consider their band to be incorrect. The VOA will investigate the matter and inform the taxpayer of the outcome. There is no opportunity to appeal the outcome of a band review.

Billing Authority – a local authority empowered to set and collect council tax and non-domestic rates on behalf of itself and other local authorities in its area. In England, shires, metropolitan districts, the Council of the Isles of Scilly, unitary authorities, London boroughs and the City of London are billing authorities.

Billing Authority Code – a unique identifier for billing authorities.

**Challenge to council tax valuation list – **band reviews, proposals and appeals are described as challenges to the council tax valuation lists.

Merger – two or more bandings are merged into one council tax band.

**Outcomes of challenges to council tax valuation list– **the results of a band review, proposal or appeal. For banding reviews, these are generally a band reduction, a band increase, or no change. For proposals and appeals, possible outcomes also include splits, mergers, adding or deleting entries for that dwelling from the council tax valuation list.

Proposal – a proposal is a formal challenge to a council tax list entry. There are limited circumstances in which a proposal can be accepted for example a new occupier can make a proposal within the first six months of becoming the council taxpayer for their home. The VOA will review the band and provide the taxpayer with a written decision, usually within two months. The taxpayer then has up to three months to appeal to a Valuation Tribunal (VT).

Region – a geographical unit formerly referred to as Government Office Region (GOR). The GOR framework was the primary classification for regional statistics and comprised nine regions of England, which combined with the devolved administrations collectively spanned the United Kingdom. From 1 April 2011 the term GOR was dropped in favour of region. This release comprises England regions plus Wales.

Split – a single council tax band is split into more than one band for example where a single property is found to contain more than one self-contained unit of accommodation.

Valuation Tribunal (VT) – an independent body responsible for making decisions on council tax appeals.

Further information

The responsible statistician for this release is Sarah Sawyer who can be contacted via email at statistics@voa.gsi.gov.uk.

For further information on the area codes used in this release please refer to the ONS’s website at the following location:http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/geography/geographic-policy/coding-and-naming-for-statistical-geographies/index.html.

CSV Metadata

The following table provides the variable names and descriptions appearing on the CSV files included in this release.

Variable	Variable Description
CHL_APL_VTN_CNT	Count of appeals that were settled or withdrawn without reaching a Valuation Tribunal (VT) in the quarter of the financial year.
CHL_APL_VTY_CNT	Count of appeals that were cleared after a Valuation Tribunal (VT) in the quarter of the financial year.
CHL_BND_RVW_CNT	Count of band reviews that were cleared in the quarter of the financial year.
CHL_PRO_CNT	Count of proposals that were cleared in the quarter of the financial year.
CHL_TTL_CNT	Count of all challenges that were cleared in the quarter of the financial year.
OUT_BND_INC_CNT	Count of all band reviews that resulted in an increase to council tax band in the quarter of the financial year.
OUT_BND_RED_CNT	Count of all band reviews that resulted in a reduction to council tax band in the quarter of the financial year.
OUT_BND_UNC_CNT	Count of all band reviews that resulted in no change to council tax band in the quarter of the financial year.
OUT_ENT_DEL_CNT	Count of challenges that resulted in an entry being deleted from the council tax valuation lists in the quarter of the financial year.
OUT_ENT_SPM_CNT	Count of challenges that resulted in either an entry being split into one or more entries or a one or more entries being merged in the council tax valuation lists in the quarter of the financial year.
OUT_ENT_NEW_CNT	Count of challenges that resulted in a new entry being added to the council tax valuation lists in the quarter of the financial year.
OUT_TTL_CNT	Count of all challenges that were cleared in the quarter of the financial year.
REGION	The name of the region that forms the basis over which counts are aggregated.
BA_CODE	Unique identifier for billing authorities.
AREA	Administrative area name
AREA_CODE	Unique identifier for administrative geographies as specified by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The table below details the variables present in each CSV file (denoted by X).

Variable/Table	1	2	3.1	3.2	3.3	3.4	3.5	4	5	6.1	6.2	6.3	6.4	6.5
AREA_CODE	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
CHL_APL_VTN_CNT	X							X
CHL_APL_VTY_CNT	X							X
CHL_BND_RVW_CNT	X							X
CHL_PRO_CNT	X							X
CHL_TTL_CNT	X							X
OUT_BND_INC_CNT		X	X	X	X	X	X		X	X	X	X	X	X
OUT_BND_RED_CNT		X	X	X	X	X	X		X	X	X	X	X	X
OUT_BND_UNC_CNT		X	X	X	X	X	X		X	X	X	X	X	X
OUT_ENT_DEL_CNT		X		X	X	X	X		X		X	X	X	X
OUT_ENT_SPM_CNT		X		X	X	X	X		X		X	X	X	X
OUT_ENT_NEW_CNT		X		X	X	X	X		X		X	X	X	X
OUT_TTL_CNT		X	X	X	X	X	X		X	X	X	X	X	X
REGION	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X