Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many businesses are awaiting confirmation of their rateable value so that they can receive a rate demand from their local authority; and how many of those awaiting confirmation received a visit from the Valuation Office Agency in (a) 2019, (b) January to March 2020 and (c) since March 2020.

The table below shows the number of cases the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) had outstanding in England at 31 December 2020 for properties that were new or required a split or merger (reconstitution). It also includes the number of property inspections undertaken on any of these outstanding cases.

When assessing properties the VOA have access to a variety of information sources, which means it is not always necessary to visit a property to complete a case. The VOA will inspect where they need to gather additional information or confirm facts.

The VOA’s systems are property based, rather than occupier based, and therefore the information is by case/property, rather than by business.

(1) New Assessments and Reconstitutions represent all cases of these types in either a Check, Challenge or Assessment Review.

For disclosure reasons, numbers above 0 and below 5 are denoted with a ‘-‘.

Statistics on all outstanding Checks, Challenges and Assessment Reviews are published on a quarterly basis at www.gov.uk/government/statistics/non-domestic-rating-challenges-and-changes-2017-and-2010-rating-lists-december-2020.