Following the Government announcement on the 21 July that the next rating revaluation in England will take effect from 1 April 2023, we now know that the Antecedent Valuation Date (AVD) will occur on 1 April 2021.
As I mentioned previously, it had been announced that the next one would have been in 2021, based upon 2019 property values, which had COVID19 not occurred would have been feasible. Legislation at the time had been laid and the majority of the revaluation work had been completed by the Valuation Office Agency. Then in this year’s budget statement, it was announced that the 2021 revaluation would be postponed.
As discussed in my previous blog, this in itself created more questions than answers as it appeared that we might be faced with a rating revaluation in 2022, with an AVD of 2020. My concern here was that due to the effects of COVID19, such an AVD would create more problems than it solved as the rental values would simply not be reflective of the current impacts faced in the property sector. It is unsurprising therefore to see that the government has appreciated this issue and determined the best course of action is to push the revaluation back a further year, meaning they are now able to use an AVD of 2021. The Government’s statement confirms that the reason for the delay is “so that it better reflects the impact of COVID19, it will be based on property values as of 1 April 2021”.
What this means for Billing Authorities
As a result of the 2023 business rates revaluation announcement, the 2017 Valuation List will now remain live until 31st March 2023. Billing Authorities will need to factor this in and be prepared for two main considerations:
- The cash effect of any existing appeals (where losses are forecast) will be greater and forecast losses will need to be extended by two years.
- Instead of running down the end of the current list in these last 8 months, we now have a further two years. Due to this, it is likely that Councils will see more appeals that would probably not have been considered by ratepayers had just 8 months of the list remained.
What Billing Authorities need to do
It is therefore important that Councils review their provisions for losses to ensure they are sufficient to deal with these additional amounts.
Existing Wilks Head and Eve Revenues Assurance clients can be assured that their next forecasts will have been updated to incorporate the impacts of this change, including the extended cash effect of existing appeals and the additional forecasting of the as yet unknown appeals.
If you have any questions about the implications of this 2023 business rates revaluation announcement or have not yet appointed someone to undertake the forecasting for your Authority please contact atownsend@wilks-head.co.uk or rmessenger@wilks-head.co.uk or call 020 7637 8471 for further details on how we can assist.