Storage land, lorry parks and scrapyards
This publication is intended for Valuation Officers. It may contain links to internal resources that are not available through this version.
1.1 This Rating Manual entry concentrates on:
- Land used for Storage - with regard to general storage land over 10,000m2 (SCAT code 148G)
- Lorry parks (SCAT code 161G)
- Car/container storage land - at ports and other key locations (mainly SCAT code 148G)
- Car parking plots - Large and usually unmarked car parking plots at or close to airports (SCAT code 040 or 041G, although some may currently be within 148G)
- Scrap-yards (SCAT code 244G)
1.2 Car display land (046G), hand car wash sites (045G) and land used for car/van hire (should be 046G, but many are 148G) are not covered as they are more commercial in character. Please see the Practice Notes in respect of each of these classes for more detail.
1.3 This instruction gives advice on the data capture and referencing approach to be adopted for all Land Bulk Class, but primarily concentrates for co-ordination purposes on those hereditaments that must be data captured within the national sublocation categories. It is envisaged that the scope of this Rating Manual section can be expanded if more evidence comes to light.
1.4 The bulk class of this category of property should be L.
1.5 Further guidance to the data capture and survey requirements of these categories of property can be found at Appendix 1 - Data Capture and Referencing Guide: Storage Land, Lorry Parks, and Scrap Yards.
1.6 Not all plots of land over 5,000m2 are subject to national co-ordination. Many such plots should be valued on the appropriate Unit scheme because they are not at a key location. For example, large land plots in rural locations and/or those on most disused former airfields are not covered, nor are the majority of caravan storage sites.
2.1 Primary description codes, primary descriptions and SCAT codes for the different types of land detailed at 1.1 should be:
- CW1- Land used for Storage and Premises - 148G
- IX - Scrapyard/breakers’ yard and Premises - 244G
- CW1 - Lorry Park and Premises - 161G; or CG4 - Road Haulage Depot and Premises - 161G
All classes of hereditament should have G SCAT suffix.
This Rating Manual entry does not cover land used for display, land used for car sales or land used for caravan sales.
3.1 All valuation matters and relevant cases should be dealt with by valuers in Regional Valuation Units and National Valuation Unit Inner London.
3.2 It is anticipated that each Unit will have a named individual responsible for the class. More than one named individual is recommended for succession planning.
3.3It is also recommended that each Unit should allocate a named co-ordinator, or Lead Valuer, to act as a point of contact within the Unit. This Lead Valuer will be responsible for assisting in the delivery of the Unit’s valuation scheme and also for liaising on value and technical issues with other Lead Valuers across adjoining Units. The Lead Valuer will be responsible for ensuring compliance with this section.
4.1 This is a Regional Valuation Unit (RVU) and National Valuation Unit (Inner London) Class Co-ordination responsibilities are set out in Rating Manual: section 5 part 1.
4.2 The plans for all co-ordination activity are outlined in the CCT practice note
5.1 There are no particular legal issues relating to this class of property.
6.1 The surveys should be to VSA Standards with no circulation/access space deducted.
6.2 Where there are temporary buildings, cabins, and/or storage containers etc. located on land, then the area of this land must not be deducted. The value of the temporary buildings and/or storage containers and the like, must be added in addition to the land value. Depending on the circumstances, this can be done in the valuation either by a suitable line entry or by using other additions. Other additions is the preferred approach.
6.3 The data capture and referencing guide to all categories of property noted at 2.1 is detailed at Appendix 1 - Data Capture and Referencing Guide: Storage Land, Lorry Parks, and Scrap Yards.
6.4 Unmarked airport car parking close to airports should be captured using the national sublocation LFLY (as noted at 7.4 below) within Land (L) Bulk Class, not as Car Parking within Miscellaneous (M) bulk class.
7.1 These guidelines are for hereditaments that comprise land only and those where buildings may be present but only form a minor element of the valuation. Any building element must be relatively insignificant- by that it is meant not significant in the context of the hereditament. As a guideline, buildings should comprise less than 25% of the rateable value.
7.2 Properties with buildings that are not relatively insignificant should be data captured and valued as a 2nd survey unit using a different bulk class, but the SCAT Code should not be changed. For further guidance on the approach to data capture, refer to Appendix 1.
7.3 The survey should be retained within the property folder on EDRM.
7.4 Units must identify and amend the data capture of all hereditaments that fall into the following National Sub-location categories:
| National Sublocation | Description |
| TRUK | Lorry Parks above 5,000 m2 in key locations |
| LFLY | Airports - Large Land Plots over 5,000m2 for car parking or storage, where there may be a premium in the land value influenced by its proximity and convenience for major airports |
| LDOK | Dockside - Large Land Areas over 5,000m2 on or adjacent to the dockside at ports- may include storage land of imported/exported vehicles- the landlord will usually be the port company which should give consistency of value at each port and car importers will compete in the same market as other land users |
| LCAR | Vehicle Storage- Large Land Plots over 5,000m2 for the storage of imported vehicles or vehicles for export, not located on or adjacent to the dockside at ports, though may be nearby; security high with good surfacing, both usually being tenant's improvements |
| LBIG | Key-Located Large Storage Land Plots- large storage land plots above approximately 10,000m2 in key locations, usually with good accessibility to motorways and/or in close proximity to other complementary hereditaments e.g. rail freight terminals |
7.5 The use of MC Cases to correct SCAT Codes is encouraged as is, alternatively, the use of the Revaluation assessment creation process as an opportunity to correct the SCAT Codes. This will improve the quality of valuation schemes.
7.6 Care must be taken in ensuring the careful and correct analysis of rental evidence. Consequently, it is vital that rented plots of land are measured correctly to ensure accurate analysis of rents.
7.7 Units should review industrial bulk classes to determine whether it is appropriate for any hereditaments to be re-data-captured as bulk class L, particularly where the total value of the land exceeds that applied to the building element.
7.8 Units should take care about the Line Use Codes adopted within surveys on RSA, for example, the following should be noted.
- LFH is only used when hard surfaced land is of good quality
- LFG should be used for where the surface has seriously deteriorated because of its age, as well as for land that is covered with chippings, gravel, etc.
- LOH is unlikely to be encountered as most hard surfaces will have suitable fencing (as the extra expense of providing a good surface usually justifies fencing and other security measures).
7.9 The non-italicised parts of the Sublocation descriptions at 7.4 above should be copied onto RSA as the standard descriptions of the National Sub-locations (including the sections in italics would mean the 256 characters allowed in RSA would be exceeded).
7.10 For land hereditaments falling within the national sublocation categories and where there are any substantial ancillary buildings, it is recommended that they are data captured as a 2nd survey unit. Other Additions should only cover: portacabins, containers, small garages/storage buildings, open-stores and the like, which are usually tenant’s improvements and will be ignored for rental analysis. The bulk class of the 2nd survey unit should be F or W bulk class, with a different sub-location to the Primary Survey Unit. In order to exclude the second survey unit from the total significant area in the first survey unit, the ‘Include in Significant Area’ flag within the second survey unit should be set to N.
8.1 It is recommended that address matrices are used in each of the valuation access paths of the above national sublocations. However, where there are significant numbers of co-located hereditaments which fall within one of the national sublocation categories, such as at certain major ports, it is permissible to use a size matrix to value these.
8.2 The 2nd survey unit mentioned above should access a dedicated address matrix with a value which ties in with the appropriate local industrial matrix. This will enable buildings to be valued at a price corresponding to the prevailing local industrial value rather than an approximation of the value in the Other Additions (OA) Table. The 2nd Survey Unit value will need have an access path to a dedicated ancillary building address matrix, rather than the local size-based industrial matrix, as quantum derived from the primary survey unit will otherwise undervalue the building (see R2010 IA 201207 - Changes to the Valuation Model - Multiple Survey Units, Other Additions and the Valuation of “Hybrid” Hereditaments).
8.3 For locally-sub-located land hereditaments, Units should use the type of matrix (size or address) that is more appropriate in the local circumstances. When using a size matrix, the 2nd (and subsequent) survey units which may include any building elements should have the ‘Include in Significant Area’ flag set to N.
8.4 The practice of using adjustment codes in these classes should be discontinued save for exceptional circumstances. Classes of land which use address matrices should already have values which reflect all the characteristics of the property. Adjustment codes and end allowances should rarely be necessary and should only be used where the disability causing the allowance is not accounted for elsewhere and the impact of the disability is such that it can be demonstrated that the rental bid for the property would be reduced, compared to the ‘beacon’ property type in the valuation scheme.
- Rating Support Application (RSA)
- Survaid
- Class Co-ordination team for Regional Industrials Rental
1. Market appraisal
1.1 There is some evidence of a premium existing in rents in some locations, but not all, and this therefore has to be the decision made by Units themselves, based on local evidence.
1.2 The impact of the COVID pandemic on industrial property, including land, was marked by considerable variation between sectors – the Class Co-ordination Team is not aware of any media comment focusing on industrial land, scrapyard or lorry park rental values around the Antecedent Valuation Date and the effects of the pandemic on these.
2. Changes from the last practice note
2.1 The Class Co-ordination team has removed the recommendation to utilise a single analysis scale at 4.1.
2.2 The national sublocations listed in rating-manual-section 5a/section 547 7.4 must be used for all relevant hereditaments fitting the sublocation descriptions. This is necessary to achieve consistency as rental evidence is more difficult to collect when sublocations are more disparate. For example, all large unmarked airport car parking plots close to major airports should be data captured as land hereditaments with the appropriate national sublocation rather than be captured as locally-sublocated car parking hereditaments.
2.3 Amendment of ordering of guidance within section 4.
2.4 Scrapyards should have their own dedicated sublocation and be valued on a separate scheme to other land hereditaments to enable different levels of value to be applied, if that is warranted.
3. Ratepayer discussions
3.1 No discussions have been held with any ratepayer representatives or trade bodies, primarily because values will be based for the vast majority of hereditaments on the local rental evidence and because of the wide variety of different parties likely to represent occupiers. No great benefit is likely to be derived from central discussions being held within these land classes.
4. Valuation scheme
Rental analysis
4.1 There is no prescription as to the correct analysis scale to use for the analysis of rents on Land Used for Storage and Lorry Parks. However, the most appropriate analysis scale may be the R2023 analysis scale A1LSTORAGE1 which values all line use codes at a factor of 1.0.
4.2 Sub-locations must be amended on RSA. This will enable the CCT to regularly download an AssFOR spreadsheet from RSA, providing guidance to Units when carrying out their R2023 valuations. In the longer term, the spreadsheet will assist in maintaining Rateable Values on challenges and appeals and, in Wales, Proposals, enabling caseworkers to compare evidence and levels of value on, for example, car storage land close to major airports across England and Wales.
4.3 Units are encouraged to use the FORT1 spreadsheet for the whole of Bulk Class L if existing approaches do not produce a good return rate for RALDs. The nature of land hereditaments may present difficulties in delivering RALDs so the importance of obtaining the correct delivery address cannot be over-emphasised.
Valuation
4.4 The CCT will not give specific valuation advice on any class of property covered by this PN. However, the use of National Sublocations will enable Units to review a greater pool of evidence to inform their valuation decisions and, on an ongoing basis, provide a ready source of comparable evidence.
4.5 The CCT has found no common correlation nationally between values of surfaced and unsurfaced land plots, with no reconciliation of values and costs of surfacing. Consequently, there is likely to be regional variation in the relativities, and for hereditaments with local sub-locations, the decision as to which of the national valuation scales to adopt is left to each Unit.
4.6 However, for the National Sub-locations the valuation scale VXLSTORAGE1 should be adopted within valuation access paths, with all land use codes set at relativities of 1.00. This will mean that valuations may have to be adjusted where different surfaces are present within the same hereditament - the relativity between different surfaces varies according to local market conditions, and so this will need to be decided upon using local expertise.
4.7 Within the scope of this PN, there is no recommendation on the relativities to be adopted between surfaced and unsurfaced land for any land hereditaments. For all land hereditaments bar those with the national sublocations, the valuation scale adopted should be determined by those with local expertise.
4.8 Each separate class of property covered by this PN should have its own valuation scheme i.e. separate schemes for storage land, scrap-yards and lorry parks.
4.9 In the past, Valuation Schemes have been set up for Land Used for Storage based on the nature of their locations e.g. separate schemes (and therefore sub-locations) for prime urban (e.g. in key locations near major motorway locations); urban/industrial; rural. Units may consider it appropriate to subdivide the rural category into those plots where they may be varying degrees of demand (e.g. there is no alternative demand for many county council occupied sites for salt, etc., storage).
4.10 Whilst there has been some evidence that rents on scrapyards across England and Wales justify a premium above local land values, this is by no means universal. In order to enable higher levels of value to be applied to scrapyards should that be justified, they should be valued on their own scheme and follow local evidence - all scrap yards should therefore be given their own dedicated sublocation which should access an address matrix as a dedicated scrap yard scheme. Where not currently separately sub-located these can be identified by carrying out searches to identify those with SCAT code 244 or primary descriptions containing the words “scrap” or “breaker”.
4.11 Lorry Parks with the national sub-location TRUK should be valued on their own scheme.
4.12 Treatment of Storage Containers (SCN): The Moor Lane Self-Storage UT(LC) judgement decided that in the absence of rental evidence storage containers situated on Land Used for Storage should be valued by reference to the amortised cost of purchasing and installing the containers. The value of these is to be added in addition to the base value of the land, no adjustment to the land area calculation should be made to account for the presence of the containers. This approach should also be applied more generally to all temporary buildings and cabins. Containers come in the variety of sizes. The majority of containers utilised for storage will be the standard 20ft deep container, the main reason for this size’s popularity relates to the fact that being only 20ft deep, lighting isn’t needed, meaning that they don’t require to be linked to mains electricity.
The 2023 Cost Guide lists the ERC for 20ft containers at £1,829 and £2,715 for a 40 footer. Applying the statutory decapitalisation rate of 4.4% results in an annual equivalent price of £80 per 20ft container and £119 for a 40ft.
The recommended approach is to use other additions in the valuation rather than line entries. The Other Additions section of the valuation must reflect the number of containers/units in the ‘Size/No.’ field and inputting the appropriate rate per container in the ‘Adopted Amount field’.
For 2017 DLM: The UT(LC) decision decided upon £72 per 20ft container based upon actual costs. This is the price to be applied when amending 2017 Valuations containing standard 20ft storage containers (use code SCN).The figure for 40ft units is £98 per unit, based upon ERC from 2017 Cost Guide of £1,829 by 4.4% statutory decap rate.
Any variations from the standard container sizes listed above need to be applied on a pro-rata basis.
1. Market appraisal
1.1 Individual Unit Market Knowledge Reports with regards to the above classes of property are held within L:\NDR\2017 Reval\NDR \Market Knowledge, where ‘’ is the Unit name.
1.2 There are some consistencies around the country with most reports produced so far outside the South East suggesting a fairly narrow range of values over 5,000m2 for land in accessible commercial locations. It’s likely that at strategic positions covered by the national sublocations - see Rating Manual Storage land, lorry parks and scrapyards 7.1 and Appendix 1 - Data Capture and Referencing Guide: Storage Land, Lorry Parks, and Scrap Yards Appendix 1 - Data Capture and Referencing Guide: Storage Land, Lorry Parks, and Scrap Yards (e.g. at docks, major motorway junctions/intersections and near airports) values will be mainly well in excess of that and so Units need to ensure that data capture work identifies those plots which are suitable for the national sublocations. In terms of the evidence outlined in the National Market Knowledge Report above, this is clean and consistent at each location, although other rents which may assist have doubts hanging over them because of RPI increases or being between connected parties. At Portbury and Avonmouth, rents are consistently at a higher level than the ‘norm’ and, at certain dock locations such as Southampton, rents are far higher than that the national average. Values in the South East are the highest, particularly close to Gatwick and Heathrow where values over £30/m2 are not uncommon.
1.3 With regard to scrap yards, there are a whole host of approaches to 2010 valuation of this class, some with uplift, some without. There is very little evidence to go off for the larger properties and it would appear that what there is should be valued on its own merits. There appears to be a premium in rents in some locations but not all and this therefore has to be the decision made by Units themselves, based on local evidence. See 4.7 below for more detail on scrapyards and recycling permits.
1.4 Units are reminded that Forms of Return, when issued, should be directed to the postal address of the occupier rather than, as a matter of course, to the hereditament itself. In view of the nature of these hereditaments, there has historically been a relatively low return rate for this class of property.
2.0 Changes from the 2010 Practice Note
2.1 Whilst the need to identify and adopt national sublocations was part of the 2010 PN, this 2017 PN reinforces the need to identify several more of these. For example, there are undoubtedly many portside plots that remain on local sublocations and, similarly, many large plots close to some of the major airports and used for airport parking are not captured using the national sublocations.
2.2 There is now renewed emphasis on the requirement to identify large plots of land which should be data captured using the national sublocations Rating Manual Storage land, lorry parks and scrapyards (7.1) and Appendix 1 - Data Capture and Referencing Guide: Storage Land, Lorry Parks, and Scrap Yards.
2.3 There is now a slight relaxation in certain locations of the need to adopt address matrices for nationally-sublocated hereditaments (RM 8.1).
2.4 The requirement to identify 2nd survey units (RM 7.7) has been limited to the national sublocations. There is also additional clarity regarding the use of address matrices on second survey units.
2.5 Recommendations as to the type of matrix to use for hereditaments data captured using local sublocations have been removed (RM 8.3).
2.6 Although there is no Class Co-ordination Team (CCT) guidance as to whether a valuation premium should be applied to scrap-yards and storage land that has a recycling permit, Units are encouraged to adopt a separate sub-location for these in order to separately identify such plots and their rental evidence, thereby removing these rents from the general land evidence and allow them to be valued on a separate valuation scheme. In order to identify such properties, Units should use the following search facility: http://epr.environment-agency.gov.uk/ePRInternet/SearchRegisters.aspx.
3.0 Ratepayer Discussions
3.1 No discussions have been held with any ratepayer representatives or trade bodies, primarily because values will be based for the vast majority of hereditaments on the local rental evidence and because of the wide variety of different parties likely to represent occupiers. No great benefit is likely to be derived from central discussions being held within these land classes.
4.0 Valuation Scheme
4.1 The Class Co-ordination Team (CCT) will not give specific valuation advice on any class of property covered by this PN. However, the use of National Sublocations will enable Units to review a greater pool of evidence to inform their valuation decisions and, on an ongoing basis, provide a ready source of comparable evidence.
4.2 It has been difficult to reconcile the value and cost relationship between surfaced and unsurfaced sites of varying levels of value. Consequently, there is likely to be regional variation in the relativities and for hereditaments with local sub-locations, the decision as to which of the national valuation scales to adopt is left to each Unit.
4.3 However, for the National Sub-locations, the valuation scale VXLSTORAGE1 should be adopted within valuation access paths, this being the one where all land use codes are set at relativities of 1.00. This will minimise the need for ‘handcrafting’ of valuations where there is more than one surface present at a hereditament.
4.4Within the scope of this PN, there is no recommendation on the relativities to be adopted between surfaced and unsurfaced land for any land hereditaments other than those with the National Sub-locations.
4.5 Each separate class of property covered by this PN should have its own valuation scheme i.e. separate schemes for storage land, scrap-yards and lorry parks.
4.6 Some Units have set up Valuation Schemes for Land Used for Storage based on the nature of their locations e.g. separate schemes (and therefore sub-locations) for prime urban (e.g. in key locations near major motorway locations); urban/industrial; rural. Units may consider it appropriate to subdivide the rural category into those plots where they may be varying degrees of demand (e.g. there is no alternative demand for many county council occupied sites for salt, etc, storage).
4.7 Rents on scrap-yards across England and Wales have been investigated and there has been some evidence found to justify a premium above local land values, this is by no means universal. Scrap-yards should be valued on their own Scheme but adopting local evidence - this is best achieved by giving all scrap yards their own dedicated sublocation which should access an address matrix. It should also be borne in mind that those with permits noted at 2.6 above may be more likely to have a premium and therefore should be drawn out of general scrapyards by separately sublocating them.
Rental Analysis
4.8 Treatment of Storage Containers: The Moor Lane Self-Storage UT(LC) judgement decided that in the absence of rental evidence storage containers situated on Land Used for Storage should be valued by reference to the amortised cost of purchasing and installing the containers. The value of these is to be added in addition to the base value of the land, no adjustment to the land area calculation should be made to account for the presence of the containers. This approach should also be applied more generally to all temporary buildings and cabins. Containers come in the variety of sizes. The majority of containers utilised for storage will be the standard 20ft deep container, the main reason for this size’s popularity relates to the fact that being only 20ft deep, lighting isn’t needed, meaning that they don’t require to be linked to mains electricity. The UT(LC) decision decided upon £72 per container based upon actual costs. This is the price to be applied when amending 2017 Valuations.
containing storage containers (use code SCN). The recommended approach is to use other additions in the valuation rather than line entries. The Other Additions section of the valuation must reflect the number of containers/units in the ‘Size/No.’ field and inputting £72 in the ‘Adopted Amount field’ for standard 20ft container. The figure for 40ft units is £98 per unit, based upon ERC from 2017 Cost Guide of £1,829 by 4.4% statutory decap rate.
For 2023 DLM: The 2023 Cost Guide lists the ERC for 20ft containers at £1,829 and £2,715 for a 40 footer. Applying the statutory decapitalisation rate of 4.4% results in an annual equivalent price of £80 per 20ft container and £119 for a 40ft.
Any variations from the standard container sizes listed above need to be applied on a pro-rata basis.
4.9 The Land Class Co-ordination Team (CCT) has compiled a spreadsheet of rents for key large plots of land which, in the main, are sub-located or should be re-sub-located with one of the National Sub-locations. The spreadsheet can be used to inform Units of the properties which will require (a) sub-location changes to one of the National Sub-locations and/or (b) re-inspection to ensure that the rents are analysed correctly, as well as providing the evidence supporting Class Co-ordination Team (CCT) Recommendations.
4.10 The Class Co-ordination Team (CCT) will add evidence to the above spreadsheet on an ongoing basis to enable Units to view all the evidence gathered. However, once sub-locations have been amended on Rating support application (RSA), this will be of far greater assistance to all and will enable the Class Co-ordination Team (CCT) to regularly download an AssFOR spreadsheet from Rating support application (RSA), providing guidance to Units when carrying out their R2017 valuations. In the longer term, the spreadsheet will assist in maintaining Rateable Values on appeal, enabling caseworkers to compare evidence and levels of value on, for example, car storage land close to major airports across the country.
4.11 The alterations of sub-locations to the National Sub-locations is not key to having rents analysed correctly as all Land Used for Storage should be analysed using the same analysis scale (all factors at 1.00). Consequently, at analysis stage, the sub-location is not a key factor. What the sub-location amendment does do is to enable values to be co-ordinated and ascertain the type of plot for which the rent is paid.
4.12 Identification of large land plots which may warrant a National Sub-location is made easier using the websites in the link below:
4.13 Units are encouraged to use the FORT1 spreadsheet for the whole of Bulk Class L if existing approaches do not produce a good return rate for FORs. The nature of land hereditaments may present difficulties in delivering FORs so the importance of obtaining the correct delivery address cannot be over-emphasised.