Official Statistics

Release notes

Published 14 August 2014

Council Tax valuation list: challenges, England and Wales, 14 August 2014

Summary

During the period from 01 April 2013 to 31 March 2014:

• There were approximately 214,000 insertions into the Council Tax Valuation Lists in England and Wales these included new, reconstituted and properties that have been split or merged. In addition, there were 65,000 deletions from the list including demolished, properties that have been split or merged, or properties no longer requiring a banding.
• The VOA made approximately 75,000 amendments to the Council Tax Valuation Lists in England and Wales, as a result of physical changes to the property, changes to the surrounding area, or new information.
• Of those amendments, 43% resulted in a decrease to the band, 37% resulted in an increase to the band and 20% resulted in no change to the band.
• The majority of insertions (approximately 191,000 across England and Wales) were due to reasons captured in the “other” category, which includes newly built homes, as well as some properties which were not previously in the Council Tax Lists and have been added due to a change to that property e.g. a shop converted into a house.
• The majority of deletions (approximately 49,000) were due to reasons in the “other” category, which includes demolished properties, as well as properties deleted due to a change to that property e.g. a house converted into a shop.
• London, at 20%, had the largest regional share of insertions into the Council Tax Valuation List in England, followed by the South East (17%) and the South West (14%). The North East had the lowest share (4%)
• London, at 21%, had the largest regional share of deletions from the Council Tax Valuation List in England, followed by the South East (16%) and the South West (13%). The North East had the lowest share (6%).

About this release

This release provides counts of the number of changes made to entries in the England (1993) and Wales (2005) Council Tax Valuation Lists during the 2013-14 financial year, as recorded at 31 March 2014. This is an update to a previous release last published on 25 October 2012.

New bandings are entered into the Council Tax Valuation Lists as a result of: newly built property; property which has been reconstituted (eg either a property is split into two or more new properties or two or more properties are merged to form a new property); or a property which was not previously in the Council Tax Valuation Lists is added due to a change to that property (eg a shop converted into a house).

Bandings are removed from the Council Tax Valuation Lists where: a property has been demolished; a property has been reconstituted (eg either a property is split into two or more new properties or two or more properties are merged to form a new property); or the property is no longer banded due to a change to that property (eg a house is converted into a shop).

The bands of properties recorded on the Council Tax Valuation Lists can be amended as a result of: physical alterations made to a property (eg extensions or refurbishments); a change to the surrounding area (e.g. a new road is built nearby); or information is brought to light that makes it clear the original banding was incorrect (eg the size of property is incorrect).

For all tables counts are rounded to the nearest 10 with counts fewer than 5 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 its accuracy.

Use made of the data

This publication is being released as part of a general drive towards making VOA’s data more accessible to the public. The data are used to inform government policy and to 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 the 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. The tables below show the breakdown of bands for England and Wales. 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.

Bands for England

Band	Value of dwelling (at 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

Bands for Wales

Band	Value of dwelling (at April 1991)
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 120,000
F	120,001 up to 162,000
G	162,001 up to 223,000
H	324,001 up to 424,000
I	424,001 and above

Glossary of terms**

The most relevant terms for this release are explained below.

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

Band - Council Tax band.

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.

Demolished - A property which appeared in the council tax list and has since been demolished.

Dwelling – a dwelling is 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.

Merger – two or more bandings are merged into one council tax band for example where two self-contained units have been converted into a single property.

Newly Built – A property which has been newly built and has not appeared in the council tax list previously.

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.

Further information

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

This release can be found at the following location on the VOA website:http://www.voa.gov.uk/corporate/publications/statisticsCouncilTax.html

Timings of future releases are regularly placed on the Agency’s website at the follow location:http://www.voa.gov.uk/corporate/publications/ReleaseTimetable.html

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/best-practice-guidance/presentation-order-guidance/administrative-areas/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
AREA	Administrative area name
AREA_CODE	Unique identifier for administrative geographies as specified by the Office for National Statistics (ONS)
BA_CODE	Unique identifier for billing authorities
SPLIT	Property Counts - Split
MERGER	Property Counts - Merger
OTHER	Property Counts - Other
INCREASED	Property Counts - Increased
DECREASED	Property Counts - Decreased
UNCHANGED	Property Counts - Unchanged
TOTAL	Property Counts - Total

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

Variable / Table	1.1	1.2	2.1	2.2	3.1	3.2
AREA	X	X	X	X	X	X
AREA_CODE	X	X	X	X	X	X
BA_CODE		X		X		X
SPLIT	X	X	X	X
MERGER	X	X	X	X
OTHER	X	X	X	X
INCREASED					X	X
DECREASED					X	X
UNCHANGED					X	X
TOTAL	X	X	X	X	X	X