Rating Appeals system in meltdown

The Chancellor’s decision to meddle with the backdating rules for Business Rates savings in the 2014 Autumn Statement has put the Rating Appeals system into meltdown.

The Chancellor acted to limit the backdating of ratepayer refunds to the 1st April 2015 on all appeals made after 31st March 2015. For appeals made by 31st March 2015, backdating to 1st April 2010 remains possible.

This move is seen within the industry as a naked attempt to limit the size of refunds. It has now backfired, as 194,720 additional appeals were lodged in the first quarter of 2015.

This takes the number of outstanding appeals to 272,360 compared with the 168,000 outstanding in September 2014 before his statement.

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA)  has been settling appeals at the rate of around 145,000 per annum, but this target has now shrunk to 90,000 per annum as staff are diverted to 2017 Revaluation work.

This leaves the prospect of 3 years work to cover outstanding cases, without any reflection of any additional 2010 List appeals yet to be made. This means that many 2017 List appeals will be lodged before the 2010 backlog is cleared – hence the use of “meltdown”.

The industry now fears that the Government will conclude that the VOA cannot be trusted with an open appeals system, and will use this as a reason to introduce a more formal, difficult and costly appeal system for all parties.