Barclay Implementation Advisory Group: Appeals sub-group final report

Footnotes

1. https://consult.gov.scot/local-government-and-communities/non-domestic-rates/user_uploads/00537324.pdf 

2. https://consult.gov.scot/local-government-and-communities/non-domestic-rates/user_uploads/00537324.pdf 

3. https://www2.gov.scot/Publications/2019/02/7960/downloads#res546439 

4. Alastair Kirkwood joined the Appeals sub-Group when he took up the SAA Presidency from Ian Milton in June 2019. 

5. From January 2019.

6. The SPF was represented by Niall Rankin.

7. 13 March 2018, 18 April, 26 September, 7 November, 28 November, 29 January 2019, 9 April, 16 May, 25 June and 12 September. 

8. This is defined in section 6(8) of the Valuation and Rating (Scotland) Act 1956 as: “the rent at which the lands and heritages might reasonably be expected to let from year to year if no grassum or consideration other than the rent were payable in respect of the lease and if the tenant undertook to pay all rates and to bear the cost of the repairs and insurance and the other expenses, if any, necessary to maintain the lands and heritages in a state to command that rent”. Currently, for the majority of properties, RV and Net Annual Value are the same.

9. Barclay Review Of Business Rates October 2016, Submission from SAA to Local Government  and Communities Committee: https://www.parliament.scot/S5_Local_Gov/Meeting%20Papers/20170426_MeetingPapers.pdf 

10. Local Government  and Communities Committee evidence session with Assessors, Stage 1 Non-Domestic Rates (Scotland) Bill, Wednesday 29 May 2019 http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=12138&mode=pdf 

11. https://www2.gov.scot/Resource/0052/00523643.pdf 

12. Scottish Local Government Finance Statistics, 2017-18: https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/statistics/2019/02/scottish-local-government-financial-statistics-2017-18/documents/scottish-local-government-finance-statistics-2017-18/scottish-local-government-finance-statistics-2017-18/govscot%3Adocument/scottish-local-government-finance-statistics-2017-18.pdf 

13. As defined in Section 37(1) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1975.

14. Section 13 of the Lands Valuation (Scotland) Act 1854. 

15. As per Regulation 4 of The Valuation Appeal Committee (Procedure in Appeals under the Valuation Acts) (Scotland) Regulations 1995, as amended, this can be by unilateral application of one party, or joint application of both. The VAC decides on this basis whether to refer a case to LTS. 

16. The Valuation Timetable (Scotland) Order 1995, as amended. 

17. Information provided by the Grampian Assessor to the Scottish Government on 2010 appeals during the period from 15 March 2010 to 30 September 2015. 

18. Rateable Values Non-Domestic Appeals (RVAPP): https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Local-Government-Finance/ReturnRVAPP 

19. https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/statistics/2012/02/scottish-local-government-financial-statistics-2010-11/documents/00388252-pdf/00388252-pdf/govscot%3Adocument/00388252.pdf 

20. https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/statistics/2019/02/scottish-local-government-financial-statistics-2017-18/documents/scottish-local-government-finance-statistics-2017-18/scottish-local-government-finance-statistics-2017-18/govscot%3Adocument/scottish-local-government-finance-statistics-2017-18.pdf 

21. https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Local-Government-Finance/NDR-Rates-Relief/Appeals2019-20Q1

22. https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Local-Government-Finance/NDR-Rates-Relief/Appeals2019-20Q1 

23. This is when PTO agrees an RV in advance of revaluation with the Assessor.

24. These are currently known as Summary Valuations on the SAA Portal.

25. Annex C.2 of the Barclay Review stated: “In an ideal world we would have liked this to be implemented as soon as practicable – with the first revaluation occurring ideally in 2020.  However, in discussion with practitioners, we realise this would not be feasible.   This is because we feel a number of our other reforms need to take place ahead of more frequent revaluations. These include the movement of appeals system into Tribunal Scotland and the opportunity for the vast majority of all appeals against 2017 revaluation to be settled, new information gathering powers to be created to enable valuations to be better informed and less likely to be appealed and time to allow the various administrative and cultural changes to be introduced.”

26. https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/spring-statement-2018-philip-hammonds-speech 

27. Assessors noted that this was due to their incapacity to fully disclose information prior to citation due to concerns over the sharing of commercially sensitive information.

28. In the first 24 months following revaluation, 27,596 (or 76% of the total number of appeals), resulted in no change in RV. Source: https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Local-Government-Finance/NDR-Rates-Relief/Appeals2018-19Q4 

29. The Appeals sub-Group did not discuss the treatment of complaints in any detail.

30. Relevant decisions by the VAC, LTS or LVAC are defined as an MCC and also re-open the right of appeal for relevant properties. 

31. https://www.parliament.scot/S5_Local_Gov/Inquiries/20190903_MinPFDEToConvener.pdf 

32. The SAA cautioned that the following should be taken into account:

• Some Assessors’ systems changed during this period so the data had to be pulled from archives/manual records.
• The number of proposals received includes both valid and invalid proposals.
• Some systems did not carry the necessary markers to identify the different categories in Table 3.
• Some banding “enquiries” were treated as proposals, which may artificially have inflated the number of proposals.
• As the appeals process is managed by VAC, the status of some proposals/appeals is unknown.