Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what guidance his Department has issued to the (a) Valuation Office Agency and (b) District Valuer Service on assessing the market conditions for developing new GP practices in the last five years.

The District Valuer Service (DVS) is the specialist property arm of the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), providing independent, impartial, valuation and professional property advice across the entire public sector, and where public money or public functions are involved.

HM Treasury has not issued any guidance to the VOA. The VOA uses recognised valuation approaches in line with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) guidance.

The VOA provides the current market rent to enable the NHS to assess the financial value for money of newly proposed developments. This then enables the NHS to determine access to reimbursements. The role of the DVS is set out in the NHS Premises Cost Directions 2013, which is publicly available online: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6520111caea2d0000d219939/nhs-general-medical-services-premises-costs-directions-2013.pdf