WIREDGOV

Over the coming weeks, business owners will be receiving correspondence from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) advising them to check the details of their property valuation to ensure they’re correct and directing them to a newly-created website. The website is designed to guide busy business owners all the way through, giving them everything they need to check the details and feel confident that their valuation is fair and accurate.

It is essential to check that the property valuation is correct, as business rates bills are calculated, based on these figures. The VOA’s revaluation project manager, Steve Bliss, says:

“It’s very simple. Ratepayers should check the details of the new valuation immediately and get in touch if there are any errors. If it’s wrong we want to put it right now. Businesses should look out for our clearly marked envelopes – they may be addressed to ‘the occupier’ but they’re important.”

This is the first year this information has been available to business owners online in this way and the website has been designed to make the process as quick and easy as possible. By logging on to www.voa.gov.uk/2010 ratepayers will be able to compare their details with other similar properties and, where necessary, contact VOA for assistance. The site offers lots of straightforward help and even short videos on key topics, designed to explain the valuation process.

Each valuation clearly shows the details of the business property, whether it is a shop, an office or a warehouse, including the number of rooms, their description and size, and the value applied to each area.

For trade publications, such as the Publican, supplement the above with: For pubs, and other licensed property, the valuation will show the levels of fair maintainable trade, instead of floor space.

Roger Culcheth of the Federation of Small Business (FSB) adds,

“The VOA is giving ratepayers as much information as possible, well in advance. We all have to pay business rates and it is important for everyone to understand what this bill is based on and how the final figure is arrived at. That’s easy if you have the valuation details sent to you and the opportunity to check them now, before the rates are calculated.”

For more information, quotes or digital footage please contact:

Betty Nwosu on 020 7261 8849/ email betty.nwosu@coi.gsi.gov.uk or

Leigh Brimicombe on 020 7261 8682/ email leigh.brimicombe@coi.gsi.gov.uk

NOTES TO EDITORS

• The VOA values all business and non-domestic property in England and Wales for business rates. It is sending out some 1.8 million valuations during October, giving ratepayers the chance to check their details now to make sure that if changes are necessary, they can be made, and they are billed the correct amount.
• New rates bills for 2010/11 will be calculated and issued by local councils in early 2010. To help businesses get an advance indication of how their new valuation translates into what they will pay, a rates bill ‘indicator’ has been set up at www.businesslink.gov.uk/estimatemyrates